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DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 




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250fH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT 

OF THE FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL IN 

DORCHESTER. 



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JUNE :22, 1889. 




BOSTON : 
ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL, CITY PRINTERS. 

1890. 



DOKCHESTER CELEBRATION. 



250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT 

•OF THE FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL IN 

DORCHESTER. 



JUNE 22, 1889.' 




BOSTON; 

ROCKWFXL AND CHUECHILL, CITY PRINTERS. 

18 9 0. 



v^v 



* 



In School Committp^e, 

Boston, June 25, 1889. 



Ordered to be printed. » 
Attest : 



PHINEAS BATES, 

Secretary. 



DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 



The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary- of the establishment 
of the first public school in Dorchester was celebrated Saturday, 
June 22, 1889. 

The exercises were held in a large tent located on Meeting- 
house Hill, and were under the immediate direction of a special 
committee appointed for the purpose, consisting of Hon. Charles 
T. Gallagher (President of the School Board), and Mrs. Emily A. 
Fifield, Mr. Richard C. Humphreys, William A. Mowry, Ph.D., 
Liberty D. Packard, M.D., and Mr. Richard J. Walsh (the com- 
mittee in charge of the Dorchester schools). 

Promptl}' at two o'clock the graduates of the Dorchester schools 
marched into the tent. Each class was preceded by a banner 
bearing the name of the school. The girls passed to the right of 
the stage, and the boys to the left, the High School graduates 
occupying the centre of the stage. 

The Germania orchestra furnished the music for the occasion, 
and the piano accompaniments were by Mr. Henry G. Carey, the 
special instructor of music in the Dorchester schools. 

The exercises were opened by prayer by Rev. Arthur Little, 
D.D., after which the Mendelssohn's Unison Chorus from "Test 
Gesang " — 

" Learning dawned, its light arose ; 
Thus the Truth assailed its foes," 

was sung by the graduates. 

The President then delivered the address of welcome, as fol- 
lows : — 



4 DOECHESTER CKLEBEATION. 

ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES T. GALLAGHER. 

Graduates of the Dorchester Schools, Ladies and gentle- 
men, Friends, one and all, — In behalf of the School Com- 
mittee of the City of Boston I extend to you a cordial 
welcome to this celebration, where we have come together 
to exchange mutual congratulations that we are enabled to 
take part in the 250th anniversary of so great an event ; the 
greatest event in the historv of the New World, if we are to 
consider it in connection with its consequences. 

" One-fourth of Time's great cycle has o'er the ages passed " 
since the inhabitants of Dorchester, actuated by the same im- 
pulses as the people of Virginia, the people of Boston, and 
the people of Massachusetts, who, as soon as they had pro- 
vided shelter for themselves and established the first princi- 
ples of a form of government, proceeded at once to the 
erection of a school-house, and provided for the education of 
the young, all being inspired with a common purpose, namely, 
that in the establishment of a " State without a king," the 
people, in whom was to rest the sovereign will, should receive 
the first principles of an education sufficient to enable them 
to rule and govern. 

Whether the first free public common school was estab- 
lished in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, or on School street, in 
Boston, or elsewhere; or whether the collection of the rental 
from the proprietors of Thompson's Island is to be construed 
into a general or special tax for the support of the public 
schools ; whether, also, the original settlers landed on the South 
side of Mattapannock (what is now South Boston), under the 
shadow of Dorchester Heights, — these and all other contro- 
verted points, if any there be in regard to the matter, I will 
leave to the eloquent discussion of the distinguished gentle- 
man who is to present to you the historical address later in 
the day. Certain it is, however, that this was the first time in 
the history of the whole world where a free public school. 



ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES T. GALLAGHER. 5 

supported by any kind of puhlic tax, had been established, 
and where a committee had been chosen to look after its in- 
terests ; the board of wardens, or overseers, as they were 
styled, being created by the inhabitants of the town of Dor- 
chester, within a few years after the establishment of the 
school. These wardens, or overseers, the first three being 
Deacon Wiswall, Mr. Atherton, and Mr. Howard, being 
selected from among the people at large, in the same man- 
ner, in principle, as the school boards and school committees 
throughout the length and breadth of our land have been ever 
since established ; the incidents and principles on which they 
were created being no different to-day from what they were 
at that time ; and the code of rules and regulations for the 
government of these wardens in regard to the school being as 
clearly enunciated and as complete in its details as was the 
social compact of the Pilgrims written in the cabin of the 
" Mayflower." So, it is meet and proper that the celebration of 
so great an event as this should not be confined to the local 
division committee of the old town of Dorchester, and it is 
eminently proper that the entire School Committee of Boston 
should take part in its exercises ; and the wisdom of the mem- 
bers of the Division Committee of Dorchester has been shown 
by their desire to join with them the whole School Committee, 
and make the celebration not a local but a municipal, as it 
might well be a national, affair. 

And the great lesson of the day should be, that while we 
meet to congratulate ourselves on the blessings that we and 
our fathers have derived from these great series of acts per- 
formed by these people two hundred and fifty years ago, let 
us exhibit to posterity our appreciation of wdiat they did : 
they planted a seed whose fruit has been planted again and 
again throughout the length and breadth of this land, until 
the public common school system to-day can say, "From 
eastern coast to sunset sea, the continent is ours." Theirs 
the privilege to plant the seed of such principles, ours the 



b DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

duty to see that those principles are transmitted unimpaired 
from generation to generation, establishing and creating "an 
example for the youth of the land, where intelligence shall 
blend with character, and both be united in one common 
purpose with unselfish devotion to the public weal." For — 

" What constitutes a State? 
Not high-raised battlements or labored mounds, 

Thick wall or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; 

Not bays and broad-armed ports, 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 

No; — MEN, high-minded men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued 

In forest, brake, or den. 
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; 

Men, who their duties know, 
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain, 

These constitute a State." 



The Chairbian. — la his discourse at Plymouth on the two 
hundreth anniversay of the landing of the Pilgrims, Daniel Webster 
said, " Let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our 
fathers were brought hither hy their high veneration for the Chris- 
tian religion. They journeyed in its hght, and labored in its hope. 
They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their 
society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, 
civil, political, and literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and 
extend their influence still more widely, in the full conviction that 
that is the happiest society which partakes in the highest degree of 
the mild and peaceable spirit of Christianity." I take pleasure in 
introducing to you Rev. Samuel J. Barrows, the well-known edi- 
tor of the " Christian Register," who was for many ye.ars located 
on Meeting-House Hill, as the pastor of the First Church. 



ADDRESS OF REV. SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 7 

ADDRESS OF REV. SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 

The welcome presence and opening address of the Presi- 
dent of the Boston School Board remind us that this is, in an 
official sense, a Boston celebration. But I take it that your 
committee, in asking a resident and citizen of the Dorchester 
District to respond to the speech of the chai^-nian, have meant 
to recognize the fact, that though the town of Dorchester has 
no longer a separate political existence, yet, in some respects, 
it was never more alive than it is to-day. 

It is living in the memory, the affections, and the personal- 
ity of its children, many of whom sit before us to-day ; but 
still more, as this occasion reminds us, in the institutions which 
have been bequeathed to them by their fathers. When, in 
1870, a political union was formed between Boston and Dor- 
chester, there were many of the inhabitants of this town who 
felt that instead of Dorchester being annexed to Boston, 
Boston was really annexed to Dorchester. And if priority 
of settlement and geographical extent established precedent, 
Dorchester could make good its claim. Two months before 
any settlement was formed in Boston, the fathers were al- 
ready established here, and several weeks before the organ- 
ization of the First Church in Boston, the fathers of Dor- 
chester, who, with reverent foresight had organized their 
church in England, were worshipping God in the grove 
temples of the plain. Ever since that early date, the name 
of Dorchester has grown honorable and worthy, and though 
political convenience may require Boston to cut itself up into 
wards and precincts, it ought to be a penal otfence, punish- 
able by six months' tuition in the Mather School, for anybody 
in describing his place of residence here to substitute the 
prosaic, uninteresting designation of" Ward 24," " Ward 21," 
or any other ward, for the grand old name of Dorchester. 

Dorchester has been generous in her gifts to the Common- 
wealth. She began by giving herself away. She gave 



8 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

liberally of her soil. A large slice to Stoughton ; another 
slice to Milton. Afterwards she gave South Boston and 
Washington Village to the city of Boston, and at last gave 
away all she had. So that the city of Boston has 5,000 
acres of land which once belonged to this old town. She has 
been generous not only with her soil but with its fruits. 
There have been geared in her gardens some flowers which 
never before blossomed on this planet ; some fruits which 
never before regaled human lips. She has given to the 
country the still richer fruit of her own life-blood, as yonder 
monument will testify ; but of all other contributions to city, 
State, or nation, it seems to me none have such far-reaching 
and permanent significance as this contribution of a great idea 
embodied in a great institution — the first free public school 
in the United States. I will not point out to you the signifi- 
cance of this great idea, nor must I enter the tempting field 
of history to trace its development. That office will be ably 
performed by the gentleman who follows me. It was a small 
seed to start with ; it has grown to a great tree. It asserted 
the grand principle that, in the education of its children, the 
State should make no difference between rich and poor ; but 
it has developed into still greater liberality. The old fathers, 
could we summon them from their graves, would be surprised 
to see the " niaydes " on the platform here to-day, and I trust 
they would be as proud as their children are that the town 
of Dorchester is so ably represented on the School Committee 
by a woman, — the chairwoman of this District Division. 

Many changes are going on in the limits of the old town ; 
new settlers are swarming here from overcrowded Boston. 
The old colonial esta.tes are being rapidly cut up. New 
streets are surveyed, houses are going up like magic, and 
gradually the old landmarks are disappearing. But this idea, 
and this institution, will not perish : Dorchester will live in 
her free public schools, and her free pul^lic schools will live 
in Dorchester. 



ADDRESS OF REV. SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 9 

If the old town has its history, it also has its mytholoo:y. 
There were giants in those days, and a beloved Boston poet 
has playfully reported their habits. He has told us how, on 
a certain election day, a Dorchester giant shut up his children 
in a pen, and furnished them with a pudding as large as the 
State-house dome, for their election treat, and then how lib- 
erally they flung chunks of it over Milton and Dorchester 
towns. A pretty large lump of it landed on the hill on which 
we stand. Not far from this spot was the site of the first 
school. Instead of building on the plain or on the sea-shore 
sand, they built their school upon a rock. Was not their 
action suggestive and significant of the permanence of this 
idea and this institution? What is the messao;e that the old 
fathers send down to us to-day? It is — 

" We have set our school upon a rock." 

What is the message that we send back to them from town 
and city, from State and nation, to-day? 

" The forces of superstition and ignorance shall not prevail 
against it." 

At the close of Mr. Barrows address the orchestra ren- 
dered some pleasing selections. 

The Chairman. — About the time of the establishment of the 
first school in Dorchester, the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay 
banished to Rhode Island Roger Williams, for differing with them 
on matters of education and faith ; but now, after two hundred 
and fifty years, we have cause to congratulate ourselves that 
Massachusetts has received from Rhode Island in return one of 
her leading educational men, who, although he has resided in 
Dorchester but a few years, has become so thoroughly familiar 
with the institutions, traditions, and history of the old town that 
he has been selected by the School Board of Boston to present the 
historical address for this occasion. I have the pleasure of 
introducing to you William A. Mowry, Ph.D. 



10 DORCHESTEE CELEBRATION. 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, Ph.D. 

This is graduation day. In the public schools of this 
Moth Division of the city of Boston there are three thousand 
pupils. To-day more than two hundred of them receive 
their diplomas, showing that they have honorably completed 
the course of study prescribed for the Grammar Schools of 
this city. From the whole city, during the coming week, 
two thousand will receive like certificates. Our Dorchester 
High School to-day graduates twenty-seven pupils, and from 
the entire city five hundred and fifty, having completed the 
requisite studies, graduate from the various High Schools 
and the Latin Schools. 

There are at the present time in the public schools of this 
city alone, in round numbers, sixty thousand children, under 
the instruction of fifteen hundred teachers. To-day we 
celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
establishment of the first public school in Dorchester. 

Two centuries and a half ago there were no public 
schools in this country. The little town of Boston had a 
population of a few hundred. A handful of men lately 
arrived from the Old World with their families had formed 
a settlement at "Mattapan." It would probably be difficult 
to find in the history of the world a greater contrast in the 
condition of any country at the beginning and end of any 
period of two centuries and a half than is found in the con- 
dition of our country to-day compared with its appearance 
and prospects in 1639. The inhabitants of the little colony 
in Virginia were making a desperate fight with nature and 
the savage Indians for .their lives. The Pilgrims at Plymouth, 
with a heroism scarcely paralleled, had conquered many 
obstacles, and were now comfortably established in their homes 
upon that bleak shore. The Connecticut emigrants from Cam- 
bridge, under the leadership of Thomas Hooker, " an eloquent 
and estimable man," and from Dorchester under Koijer Lud- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWEY, PH.D. 11 

low, had driven their flocks before them through the wilder- 
ness and had founded the colony at Hartford and Windsor. 
Roo;er Williams had settled at Providence, and Anne Hutch- 
inson at Newport, each with some followers. New Hamp- 
shire had a few settlers at Dover and Portsmouth, and Lord 
Baltimore with his compau}^ had established themselves in 
Maryland. Perhaps at that time the most important colony 
was Boston and the group of towns surrounding it. These 
included Dorchester and Roxbury, Salem and Lynn, Charles- 
town and Watertown, and the beo:innino-s of other settle- 
ments. 

Here, then, is the picture of our country as it was in 
1639. A dozen settlements, more or less, of emigrants from 
Europe, scattered along the coast from Portsmouth to the 
James river, containing a total of only a few thousand 
inhabitants. Behind them the broad, trackless ocean, in 
front of them an endless wilderness of rank vegetation, 
savage beasts, and wild Lidians. Two centuries and a half 
hiter a great republic is here, spanning the continent, 
and embracing more than forty states and sixty million 
people, with a free government, " of the people and for the 
people." In this country the past hundred years has wit- 
nessed a more rapid growth, a greater development, a larger 
progress of intelligence, enlightenment, thrift, and culture, 
than the world has ever seen before in any single century. 
Intelligence and education are more widely distributed and 
more universally enjoyed to-day than by any other people 
the sun shines upon. The causes of so great a change, so 
rapid a development, so brilliant a history, are varied and 
diverse. Yet among them must ever be considered, as 
standing foremost, that original, unique system of educa- 
tion which we call the American Common School. 

Nor should we neglect to give due prominence to the influ- 
ence of the New England town-meetino;. 

The compact made in the cabin of the " Mayflower " was 



12 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

the beginning of the American Republic, but the democratic 
town-meetings which sprung up so early in every New Eng- 
land town, and which are continued to this day, and prob- 
ably will be to the end of time, may well be called "the cause 
of the American Republic." 

Mr. Frothingham, in his history of Charlestown, speaks of 
them as follows' : — 

"These little assemblies, open to all, where debate was as 
free as thought, were the primary school of freedom. In 
selecting officers, in deciding about dividing the land, sup- 
porting schools and the ministry, making by-laws, and 
discussing parliamentary measures, there was evolved an 
independence of mind and a manliness of character that 
constituted a wide and admirable preparation for more 
important political action. 

"Their influence was decided. Andros, when he sup- 
pressed them, Hutchinson when he denounced them, and the 
British Parliament when it prohibited them, knew what they 
were about. Such action on the part of their enemies is a 
solid testimonial of their value. One of their friends,^ of 
the highest authority, assigns to them the credit of " having 
commenced the American Revolution." 

Edward Everett, in his v^^ell- known Fourth of July address 
in 1855, said of Dorchester : — 

"It set the example in 1633 of that municipal organiza- 
tion which has prevailed throughout New England, and has 
proved one of the chief sources of its progress." 

The History of DorcJiesier has the following : — 

"In October, 1633, the following order Avas passed, 
establishing the form of town government. This act 
acquires some importance from the fact of its precedence, 
and that the example was followed the next year by the 
other settlements, and led to the law of the General Court, 



1 Page 101. 

2 Judge Story, in Niles' Register, Vol. xlviii, page 169. 



HISTOEICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 13 

passed in 1636, regulating town governments, which has 
continued in force to the present day : — 

"'Monday, Oct. 8, 3 633. Imprimis. It is ordered that for 
the o-eneral good and well ordering of the afl'airs of the 
plantation, there shall be every Monday before the court, by 
8 o'clock A.M., and presently by the beating of the drum, a 
general meeting of the inhabitants of the plantation at the 
meeting-house, there to settle and set down such orders as 
may tend to the general good as aforesaid, and every man to 
be bound thereby, without gainsaying or resistance. It is 
also agreed that there shall be twelve men selected out of the 
company, that may, or the greatest part of them, meet as 
aforesaid, to determine as aforesaid ; yet, so far as it is 
desired, that the most of the plantation will keep the meet- 
ing constantly, and all that are there, though not of the 
twelve, shall have a free voice as any of the twelve, and that 
the greater vote both of the twelve and the other shall be of 
force and efficacy as aforesaid. And it is likewise ordered 
that all things concluded as aforesaid shall stand in force and 
be obeyed until the next monthly meeting, and afterwards 
if it be not contradicted and otherwise ordered at said 
monthly meeting, by the greatest vote of those that are 
present as aforesaid.'" 

This was not merely a town-meeting, but an establish- 
ment of the town- meeting as an institution. It was to be 
held once a month, "there to settle and set down such orders 
as may tend to the general good," covering all public mat- 
ters pertaining to the plantation, and the citizens inserted 
this specific declaration that " every man is to be bound 
thereby, without gainsaying or resistance." 

Our system of public schools now prevails in every State 
of the Union, established by law and supported by taxes 
from the people. Under our republican government the 
principle is universally accepted that the safety of the State 
demands universal intellisrence. We have no orders or 



14 DOECHESTER CELEBRATION. 

classes or castes. We have approached very nearly to uni- 
versal suffrage, and the proposition is seldom denied that a 
republican government, especially when based upon the 
broad principle of general suffrage, absolutely demands for 
its own safety, at least, the elementary education of all the 
children. Probably no one thing has contributed • more 
largely to the progress, the stability, and the prosperity of 
this country than this principle underlying the American 
common school. It sfoes hand in hand with relioion. Our 
own revered poet — may his life be long continued I — has 
tersely and graphically said : — 

" Nor heed the puny sceptic's hands 

While near the school the church spire stands, 

Nor fear the bloody bigot's rule 

While near the church spire stands the school." 

But this principle antedates the Republic. It was early 
established by the fathers, the pioneers, the founders of the 
several colonies, which were in time to develop into this 
great empire. It is surprising to find how early and how 
generally schools were established in the several colonies, 
and what uniformity of action in this respect was early 
manifested. 

Boston was settled in 1630. Harvard College was estab- 
lished six years later; William and Mary in 1693; Yale 
College in 1700; the College of New Jersey, Princeton, 
N.J., in 1748 ; the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 
in 1749; Columbia College, New York city, in 1754; 
Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1765; Dartmouth 
College, Hanover, N.H., in 1770; Rutgers College, New 
Brunswick, N.J., in 1771 ; Hampton-Sidney College, Prince 
Edward Co., Va., in 1775. 

Thus it will be seen that prior to the Revolution, in the 
thirteen English colonies, ten. colleges had been established 
in these new settlements. When we regard the intelligent 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 15 

and enterprising character of the early settlers, this fact 
appears no longer striking or strange ; but it is surprising 
that there should have been so early the universal sentiment 
which is clearly manifest in favor of establishing elementary 
and secondary schools, and especially at public expense. 
When John Eliot, who earned the title " Apostle to the 
Indians," prayed in the synod of the churches assembled at 
Boston, "Lord", for schools everywhere among us! Oh, 
that our schools may flourish ! That every member of this 
assembly may go home and procure a good school to be 
encouraged in the town where he lives. That before we die 
we may see a good school encouraged in every plantation in 
the country," he but uttered the common sentiment preva- 
lent in the several colonies. " Of his perpetual resolution 
and activity to support a good school in the town that be- 
longed unto him," Cotton Mather writes, "a Grammar School 
he would always have in the place, whatever it cost him, and 
he importuned all other places to have the like." 

The term " Grammar School " as here used, and as used 
always in those early days, had an entirely different signifi- 
cation from its meaning now. At the present day by 
" Grammar School " is meant a school of an elementary 
character, above the Primary grade, and below the High 
School. But in the early days of the New England colonies 
the appellation was used to signify a school of secondary 
education, designed to prepare boys for college, where Latin 
and Greek and the mathematics were taught. This term 
was brought from England, where it had been in use for a 
very long time with the same meaning. A " Grammar 
School " therefore in those early days meant, not an ele- 
mentary school, but an institution of learning corresponding 
to our modern High School or academy. 

Another term which is liable to be misunderstood is the 
use of the word " free " as applied to a school, A " free 
school "in those days meant a school " free " to all classes, 



16 DORCHESTER CELEBRATIOX. 

that is, free to any who paid their tuition. It had no refer- 
ence to being free from tuition. The term was used in the 
old English sense of an endowed school. 

The term " public school " also had a different meaning in 
those days from what prevails now. The endowed schools 
of Eaton and Harrow and Rugby, in England, were public 
schools, but this term was never intended to convey the idea 
that the parent patronizing it was exempt from paying 
tuition. It is absolutely necessary, in order to a proper 
understanding of the schools of the early colonial days, to 
recoonize the exact meaning of these terms. 

"Rev. Patrick Copeland raised by subscription a large 
sum of money and established a free school in Charles City, 
Va., as early as 1621. Among the officials of the Dutch 
A\^est India Co. at Manhattan, in 1633, was Adam Roelandsen, 
^ the schoolmaster,' and the school which he taught, it is 
claimed, is still in existence, in connection with the Dutch 
Reformed Church.'"' ^ 

Boston took measures for the establishment of a school in 
1635, which was doubtless commenced that year, and is in 
existence at this day, with world-wide reputation, the Bos- 
ton Latin School. 

The records of Charlestown have the folio wins; : — 
" 1636, June 3, Mr. William AYitherell was agreed with 
to keep a school for a twelve month to begin the 8th of 
August and to have £40 this year."^ 

In the report of Mr. A. D. Small, Superintendent of 
Schools for Salem, 1875, Mr. Small quotes from the inaugu- 
ral address of Mr. Saltonstall, the first mayor of Salem, the 
following : — 

" Salem had the honor of leading the way in the establish- 
ment of public schools. The Grammar School was founded 

1 Bai-nard's Americaa Journal of Education, 1862, page 529, note. 

2 40th Annual Report of the Mass. Board of Education, 1876, page 105; also, 
Frothiugham's History of Charlestown, taken from the early Colonial Records. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 17 

in 1H36, and has been continued without interruption to the 
present time." Mr. Small, however, says: "The date of its 
foundation was 1637, according to the facts given by Felt in 
his Annals of Salem," and on a previous page of his report 
he states more specifically: "In 1637 the Rev. John Fisk 
comes to town, opens a school, which was j)erha])s the first 
'yree school ' in Massachusetts." ^ 

The town of Newbury, in 1639, granted ten acres of land 
to Anthony Somerby, " for his encouragement to keep school 
one year ; " but the first notice of the town's intention to 
build a school-house and support a teacher at their expense 
was in 1652. In 1653 it was ordered "that the town should 
pay £24 by the year to maintain a free school at the meeting- 
house," against which vote seventeen persons " desired to 
have their dissents recorded." ^ 

Duxbury established a school in 1655. In Ipswich, a 
school was in existence in 1651. Newport, R.I., established 
a school in August, 1640, at which time Rev. Robert Lenthal 
was "called by a vote of the free men to keep a public 
school for the learning of youth, and for his encouragement 
there was granted him and his heirs one hundred acres of 
land and four more for a house-lot." It was also voted " that 
one hundred acres should be laid forth and appropriated for 
a school for encouragement of the person sent to train up 
their youth in learning; and Mr. Robert Lenthall, while he 
continues to teach school, is to have the benefit thereof." 
This was, evidently, from the subsequent entries in the town 
records, a " Latin School," or " Grammar School," in the old 
English sense of the term, and this rent was applied to 
reduce the expense to poor scholars. "The children of the 
rich were provided for in private schools, or family teaching, 
and not a few were sent to England for their education." ^ 

1 Mass. Boai-d of Education Report, 1876, page 106. 

2 Coffin's History of Xewbiny. 

3 Barnard's Journal of Education, 1877, page 705; also, Rhode Island School 
Report, 1876. 



18 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

Other schools were established here and there at early 
dates ; but these already mentioned are all, perhaps, that 
need our attention on the present occasion. 

Let us now proceed to consider with some care the records 
of the i'acts connected with the establishment of the first 
school in Dorchester, — a school which has continued until this 
day with no serious interruption, and which is represented 
to-day by the Mather School, its lineal descendant, or, 
rather, in fact, the very same school itself, although it was 
more than two hundred years old before it received its 
name, and whose two hundred and fiftieth anniversary we 
are now celebrating. The history of this school is of con- 
siderable interest, particularly to our people. 

On the 4th of March, 1635, the General Court of the Bay 
Colony granted to the inhabitants of the town of Dorchester 
Thompson's Island, "to enjoy, to them, their heirs & suc- 
cessors w°'' shall inhabite there forever," on condition that 
they pay to the treasury I2d. yearly as rent. On the 30th 
of May, 1639, the town voted to lay a tax on the proprietors 
of said island for " the maintenance of a school in Dorches- 
ter," The writer of the "History ot Dorchester" has the 
following explanation of the word "proprietors": "It is 
supposed that under the term ' proprietors,' in this connec- 
tion, was included the principal part of the adult male 
inhabitants of the town." This explanation is further con- 
firmed by the wording of a subsequent vote concerning this 
rental : " Whereas the inhabitants of Dorchester have for- 
mally ordered, Consented and agreed that a Rente of 
Tvventie pounds pr ann. shall issue & be payd by the sayd 
Inhabitants & theirheires from & out of a Certaine porcon 
of land in Dorchester called Thomson's Hand for & towards 
the maintenance of the schoole in Dorchester aforesayd," ' 
etc. It appears certain from this wording that this tax upon 
Thompson's Island was in reality a town tax, or a tax upon 

1 Page 422. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 19 

the town. The probability would seem to be that when the 
island was made over by the General Court to the town of 
Dorchester, the land was apportioned among the principal 
inhabitants, or "freemen," of the town resident upon the 
mainland. At all events, this was a tax levied by the town 
as a direct provision for the school. The author of the 
"History of Dorchester," quoted before, says : — 

" So far as the writer is informed, this was the first public 
provision made for a free school in the world by a direct tax 
or assessment on the inhabitants of a town." ^ 

The following is an exact copy of this important order, 
taken from the town records, page 83 : — 

"It is ordered the 20th of May 1639, that there shall be a 
rent of 20Ib a year for eue^ imposed vpon Tomsons Hand 
to bee payd p"^ eu^y p'son that hath proprietie in the sayd 
Hand according to the p'portion that any such p^'son shall 
from tyme to tyme injoy and possesse the''®, and this towards 
the mayntenance of a schoole in Dorchester. This rent of 
201b yearly to bee payd to such a schoolemaste"^ as shall 
vndertake to teach english, latine, and other tongues, and 
also writing. The said schoole-maste'" to bee Chosen from 
tyme to tyme p^' the freemen, and yt is left to y'' discretion 
of the Ide''^ & the 7 men for the tyme beeing whethe'' maydes 
shalbe taught w*'^ the boyes or not. For the levying this 
201b yearly from the p^'ticuiar p^sons that ought to pay it 
according to this order. It is farther ordered that somme 
man shalbe appoynted p^ the 7 men for the tyme beeing to 
Keceiue y^ and on refusall to levye y* pr distresse, and not 
fynding distresse, such prson as so refuseth payment shall 
forfeit the land he hath in proprietie in the sayd Hand." 

The next necessary step tor the town was to secure a 
teacher. On the 31st of October in the same year we find 
this record : — 

" It is ordered that Mr. Waterhouse shall be dispenced 

1 Pase 420. 



20 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

wth concerneing that Clause of the order in y® Charge of 
twenty pounds yeerly rent to be payd ft/ Thompson's Hand 
towards the skoole, where he is bound to teach to write, it 
shalbe left to his liberty in that poynt of teaching to write, 
only to doe what he can conveniently therein." ^ 

It soon became evident that the collection of these rents 
was attended with too much difficulty on account of the large 
number of proprietors, each of whom must pay his portion 
of the tax. It was apparent also that this tax was not suffi- 
cient in amount to carry forward the school successfully. 
For these and other reasons it was deemed advisable for the 
individual proprietors to make a direct conveyance of the 
land to the lown for the special support and establishment of 
a free school, that it might be more effectually and better 
maintained. For this purpose more than seventy persons 
over their own signatures made over to the town " the sayd 
Hand and all the benefit & profitts thereof and all their 
right & Interest in the same shalbe wholy & foreuer 
bequethed and given away from themselues & their heirs 
unto the Town of Dorchester aforesayd for & Towards the 
maintenance of a free school in Dorchester aforesayd for the 
instructinge & Teachinge of Children & youth in good litera- 
ture & Learninge." 

This document further says : " It is heerby ordered & the 
p^sent donours doe heerby declare that it is there mynd that 
the sayd Hand shalbe lett, assigned & sett Ouer only to such 
Tenant or Tenants as shall by land or otherwise sufficiently 
secure the payment of the rent thereof for the vse and 
behoofe of the schoole as aforesayd in such manner & forme 
& at such time & tymes of payment as shalbe agreed vppon 
by & l)etweene the inhabitants of Dorchester or there agents, 
one the one p''tye & the sayd Tenant or Tenants one the 
other p^e. 

"And for avoydinge the Trouble that myght arise in col- 

1 History of Dorchester, page 421. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 21 

lectinge and gatheringe the same Kent by so great a 
Multitude of Tenants that ought to pay the same, &, to the 
intent that the rents which shalbe-come due for the sayd 
Hand may be the better and more redylie Collected and payd 
it is heerby ordered and declared that the sayd Hand shall 
neuer be lett out to soe many tenants as shalbe aboue tenn in 
number at once." ' 

This deed of conveyance from the individual proprietors 
to the town was dated " the Seaventh day of the Twelfth 
moneth in the yeare 1641." (Feb. 17, 1642.) 

Hon. Joseph White, in the 40th Annual Report of the 
Secretary of the Board of Education for Massachusetts, 
says : — 

" This action of Dorchester, which was two years earlier 
than that of Boston for a similar object, is claimed by the 
historian of the town, and by other distinguished writers, to 
be the " first public school in the world supported by direct 
taxation or assessment on the inhabitants of the town," ^ 

Let us now examine the records to see if this claim can be 
properly established. 

1. The school established in Charles City, Va., in 1621, 
was sustained by subscription. It was entirely a private 
school. 

2. The Dutch school at Manhattan, in 1633, was also a 
private school. 

3. The Boston Latin School appears to have been begun 
in 1635, but there seems to be a lack of evidence to show 
that it received the support of the town till 1641. The first 
step, however, was taken in behalf of this school by the 
town, in that it elected the teacher in a legally w^arned town- 
meeting. But, like many other cases, it appears that the 
effort at first was to support it on " a foundation " like the 
schools of Old England, at Eaton, Westminster, Rugby, etc. 

1 History of Dorchester, pages 420 to 423. 

2 Page 112. 



22 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

4. So, too, the school at Charlestovvn fails to give us the 
needed evidence that it was supported by taxation till after 
the Dorchester people had set the example. If the vote in 
1636, by which "Mr. William Witherell was agreed with to 
keep a school for a twelve month to begin the 8th of August 
and to have forty pounds this year," was passed in town- 
meeting, and not in a meeting of the proprietors simply, — 
if the same is conclusive evidence that this school was kept 
at that time, and that the forty pounds to be paid to Master 
Witherell was raised by taxation, then Charlestown has the 
priority. But is this simple vote conclusive? Would the 
courts render a verdict on such meager evidence? Indeed, 
if the school were so kept, and the money had been raised 
by taxation, would there not be, inevitably, various other 
evidences? But there is, so far as I know, no evidence that 
the town supported the school by taxation till long after 
1640. 

5. The school in Salem was, perhaps, begun in 1637, by 
Rev. John Fisk, but I find no vote of the town on record 
till that of January, 1640, when at "a general towne meeting 
yong Mr. Norris [was] chose by this assembly to teach 
schooie." 

6. In 1639 the town of Newbury granted ten acres of 
land to Anthony Somerby " for his encouragement to keep 
school one year;" but the first vote, afterwards, showing 
that the town was interested in the education of children, 
was in 1652, 

These are all of the confiictinof claims needful to consider. 

In contrast with this want of evidence in the cases men- 
tioned, we have the definite record, that on the 30th day of 
May, 1639 (New Style), the inhabitants of this town, in 
general town-meeting assembled, did vote to impose a tax of 
twenty pounds a year forever upon Thompson's Island, to be 
paid " by every person that hath proprietie in said Island," 
" and this towards the mantenance of a school in Dorches- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MO WRY, PH.D. 23 

ter ; " and to be paid yearly to " such a schoolmaster as 
shall undertake to teach English, Laline and other tongues 
and also writing. The said schoolmaster to be chosen from 
tyme to tyme by the freemen, and it is left to the discretion 
of the elders and the seven men for the tyme being whether 
maydes shall be taught with the boys or not." 

But the public sentiment was not ripe for granting such 
privileges to the " maydes," and, as a matter of fact, it was 
not until 1784, when we had secured independence from 
Great Britain, that "such girls as can read the Psalter" 
were permitted to attend a Grammar School, and then only 
" from the 1st of June to the 1st of October." 

Rev. Thomas Waterhouse was the first teacher of this 
new school. Subsequently, in 1641, as we have seen, the 
individual citizens of the town made over to the town 
directly their interest in the island, " for the special support 
and establishment of the free school, that it might be more 
effectually and better maintained." 

Later still, in 1648, John Thompson, son and heir of 
David, who had been the original proprietor of the island, 
appeared, and laid claim to the island. The General Court, 
therefore, after due trial, nullified the grant to Dorchester, 
and conceded it to Thompson, as its legal owner. 

"In the triall of the case between Mr. Thomas Jones and 
Mr. John Wisewall, on the behalfe of the school of Dorches- 
ter, and Mr. John Thompson, respecting the title of the 
island called Thompson's Island, the Courte, on the hearinge 
of the case, and examining the evidences brought by both 
parties, judged the right to belong to John Thompson, and 
gave him his bill of costs, which was three pounds, seven 
shillings and sixe pence, against the towne of Dorchester." ^ 

Upon this the inhabitants of the town sent a petition to 
the General Court, briefly reviewing the matter, and closing 
with a request that the Court would grant some other island, 

• History of Dorchester, page 432. 



24 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

as a help to them "towards the maintenance of a free 
school." 

Still later, in 1659, the town chose two men to act for it 
in an effort to either recover possession of the island, or to 
secure from the General Court other land in lieu of it. 

These men therefore presented to the Court the following 
petition : — 

" To the Hon'''^ General Court Now assembled at Boston, 
the petition of the inhabitants of Dorchester 

"Humbly sheweth, 

" That whereas there was many years since granted by this 
court, as appears by record, a sertaine Hand called Thom- 
sons Hand w°^^ we the said Inhabitants possest diners years 
and hopefull to haue euer enjoyed the same for the benefit of 
o"" seines and posterity (the same being giuen to and for the 
maintenance of a free scoole In Dorchester) but the s'^ Hand 
hath bin taken from vs and settled on others to the almost 
if not totall ouerthrow of o'' free scoole w*^'^ was soe hopefull 
for posterity, both our owne and neihbors also who had or 
might haue reaped benefit thereby. 

"Our Humble Request to this hon*''^ Court is, that you 
would be pleased to reniue yo'' former grant of the said 
Hand, and confirme the same vnto vs, we conceiuing we had 
Just title ther vnto, or Elc, that you would bee pleased to 
grant vnto vs one thousand ackors of land In some conueni- 
ent place or places (for the end afo'sd, namely, the mainten- 
ance of o'' dijng scoole) where we shall find it, and in the 
courts power to grant the same, and yo'" petition""^ shall 
pray, &c. 

Dor. 18: 8. (October) 1659: 

Roger Clap, ) In the name and by 

Hopestill Foster. S order from y'' towne." 

Action was taken on this petition by the Court as fol- 
lows : — 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 25 

" The deputies thinke meets to gniunt this petition vizt. 
a thousand acres of land for the end mentioned in this 
petition, where they can find it according to law — with ref- 
erence to the consent of o'' Hon'"'^. magistrates hereto. 

"Wm. ToRRY, Clerk. 
"Edwd. Rawson, Secty. 
"Consented to by the magist's." 

It was not till after the lapse of about sixty years that the 
town secured possession of this land. In 1717 Mr. Samuel 
Capen, Sr., and Joseph Hall were appointed to "look after 
the said lands with all speed wisdom and discretion for the 
good of the town." 

The land was selected and laid out and assigned to the 
town. It was located in Fitchburg, afterwards Lunenburg, 
in Worcester County, and was sold in 1734 to Benjamin Bird, 
of Dorchester, for the sum of £400. In 1657 the town voted 
to appropriate one thousand acres of its own land for the 
benefit of " a free school." This land was afterwards divided 
between Dorchester and Stoughton. Dorchester, as late as 
1767, sold a portion of the grant for £420. ^ 

And now we come to another important fact connected 
with this early school. It is evident that the inhabitants of 
this good old town of Dorchester were thoroughly in earnest 
in the matter of a public school, and they took a step forward 
which evidently had no precedent in America, but which has 
been fruitful of results wide spread and of great importance. 

It was nothing less than the appointment of a special school 
committee, charging its members with the entire oversight of 
the school. These men, three in number, were termed 
" wardens or overseers of the school e.'' 

The establishment of this earliest school committee of the 
town was at the "March meeting" in the year 1645. The 
town at the same time established " rules and orders concern- 

1 For the foregoing facts and statements see History of Dorchester, page 433, et seq. 



26 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

ing the school." These rules were confirmed by the major 
part of the inhabitants of the town present at the meeting. 

They were as follows : — 

" First. It is ordered that three able and sufficient men of 
the Plantation shalbe Chosen to bee wardens or ou^'see'^'^ of 
the Schoole, who shall haue the Charge, oue''-sight and 
ordering thereof, and of all things Concerning the same in 
such manne"" as is hereafter expressed, and shall Continue in 
thei'' oflSce and place for Terme of thei'' Hues respectiuely, 
vnlesse by reason of any of them remouing his habitation out 
of the Towne, or fo'' any othe*" Weightie reason, the Inhabi- 
tants shall see cause to Elect and Chuse othe^' in thei'' Roome, 
in wch cases and vpon the death of any of the same wardens, 
the Inhabitants shall make a new Election and choice of 
others. And Mr. Haward, Deacon Wiswall, Mr. Atherton 
are elected to bee the first wardens o^ ouersee'^^ 

" Secondly. The said wardens shall haue full powe'' to dis- 
pose of the School stock, whethe'" the same bee in land or 
otherwise, both such as is already in beeing and such as may 
by any good meanes hereafter be added ; and shall Collect 
and Receiue the Rents, Issues and p'fits arising & growing 
of & from the sayd stock. And the sayd rents. Issues and 
p'fits shall imploy and lay out only for the best behoof and 
advantage of the sayd Schoole, and the furtherance of learn- 
ing thereby, and shall give a faythful and true accompt of 
thei'' receipts & disbursements so often as they shalbe 
thearvnto be required by the Inhabitants or the maior p'te of 
them. 

" Thirdly. The said Wardens shall take care and doe thei"^ 
vtmost and best endeavor that the sayd Schoole may fro tyme 
to tyme be supplied with an able and sufficient Schoole master 
who neu''thelesse is not to be admitted into the place of 
Schoole m'' w*''out the Generall consent of the Inhabitants or 
the maior p'^te of them. 

" Fowerthly. So often as the sayd Schoole shalbe sup- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 27 

plied w**" a Schoole m'" so provided and admitted as aforesayd, 
the wardens shall fro tyrae to tyme pay or cause to be payd 
vnto the sayd Schoole m' such wages out of the Rents, Issues 
& p^'fitts of the Schoole stocke as shall of right Come due to 
be payd. 

"Fiuethly. The sayd Wardens shall from tyme to tyme 
see that the Schoole howse bee kei)t in good and sufficient 
repay re, the charges of which reparacon shall be defrayed 
and payd out of such rents. Issues and p'"fits of y* Schoole 
stocke if ther'' be sufficient, or else of such rents as shall arise 
and grow in the tyme of the vacancy of the Schoole m"" yf 
ther® be any such — and in defect of such vacancy the wardens 
shall repayre to the 7 men of the Towne fo"" the tyme being, 
who shall have powe'" to Taxe the Towne w"^ such some or 
sommes as shalbe requested fo"^ the repayring of the Schoole 
howse as aforesayd. 

"Sixthly. The sayd Wardens shall take Care that eu'y 
yeere at or before the end of the 9th monethther'^ bee brought 
to the Schoole howse 12 sufficient Cart or vvayne loads of wood 
fo'' fewell to be fo"" the vse of the Schoolemaste"^ and the Schol- 
le''^ in winte"^, the Cost and charge of w'''^ sayd wood to bee 
borne by the scholle" fc/ the tyme beeing who shalbe taxed 
fo'.the purpose at the discretion of the sayd Wardens. 

"Lastly. The sayd Wardens shall take care that the 
Schoolm"^ fo'' the tyme beeing doe faythfully p^forme his dutye 
in his place as schoolm' ought to doe, as well in other things 
as in these w"^*^ are hereafter expressed, viz. 

" First. That the Schoolem"^ shall diligently attend his 
Schoole, and doe his vtmost indeavo' fo' Benefiting his Schol- 
le''s according to his best discretion, w*''out vnnecessaryly ab- 
senting himself to the p^'iudice of his scholle""* and hindering 
ther® learning. 

" 21y. That from the begining of the first moneth vntill the 
end of the 7"\ hee shall eu^'y day beginn to teach at seaven of 
the Clock in the morning and dismisse his scholle""" at fyue in 



28 DOECHESTER CELEBRATION. 

the afternoon®. And fo'' the othe"" fyue months, that is, from 
the beginn^ of the S**" month vntill the end of the 12"' month 
he shall eu^^y day beginn at 8 of the clock in the morning, & 
[end] at 4 in the afternoon. 

"Sly. Eu'^'y day in the yeerethe vsuall tyme of dismissing 
at noone shalbe at 11, and to beginn agayne at one, except 
that 

"41y. Eu'y second day in the weeke he shall call his 
(Scholler® togeither betweene 1 2 & one of the Clock to examin 
them what they haue learned on the saboath day p''eding, at 
w'''' tyme also he shall take notice of any misdemeano'' or out- 
rage that any of his Scholle''^ shall haue Committed on the 
saboath, to the end that at some convenient tyme due Admo- 
nition and Correction may bee admin iste''*''^ by him according 
as the nature and qualitie of the offence shall require, at w°^ 
sayd examination any of the Elde""^ or othe"" Inhabitants that 
please may bee present, to behold his religious care herein, 
and to giue ther® Countenance and approbation of the same. 

"51y. Hee shall equally and impartially receiue and in- 
struct such as shalbe sent and Committed to him fo*" that end, 
whithe'' there parents bee poore or rich, not refusing any who 
have Right & Interest in the Schoole. 

" 61y. Such as shall be Committed to him he shall dilli- 
gently instruct, as they shalbe able to learne, both in humane 
learning and good literature, & likewyse in poynt of good 
manne''^ and ditifuU behauiou'' towards all, specially there 
supiors as they shall haue occasion to bee in ther'^ p'sence, 
whithe' by meeting them in the streete or otherwyse. 

" 7ly. Euery 6 day in the weeke at 2 of the Clock in the 
after noone, hee shajl Catechise his Scholle""* in the principles 
of Christian religion, eithe*" in some Catechism w'''' the War- 
dens shall provide and p'^'esent, or in defect thereof in some 
othe'-. 

" Sly. And because all man's indeavo''s w^^out the blessing 
of God must needs bee fauitlesse and vnsuccessful, theirfore 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 29 

It is to be a chief p'te of the Schoolem'"^ religious care to 
commend his scholle^s and his Labour's amongst them vnto 
God by praye'' morning and evening, taking Care that his 
scholle'^s doer eu^'endly attend during the same. 

" 91y. And because the Rodd of Correction is an ordinance 
of God necessary sometymes to bee dispensed vnto Children, 
but such as may easily be abused by oue'^much seu''itie and 
rigour on one hjmd, or by oue'' much indulgence and lenitye 
on the othe'', It is therefore ordered and agreed that the 
schoolemaste'" for the time beeing shall haue full powe'" to 
ministe"^ Correction to all or any of his scholle''^ w"'out respect 
of persons, according to the nature and qualitie of the offence 
shall require ; whereto all his scholle'' must bee duly subject ; 
and no parent or othe"^ of the Inhabitants shall hinde'" or go 
about to hinde'^ the maste'' therein : neu'"theless yf any parent 
or other shall thinke there is just cause of complaynt agaynst 
the maste'^'fo'" to much seue^itye such shall haue liberty friendly 
and louingly to expostulate w"^ the maste'^' about the same ; 
and yf they shall not attayne to satisfaction, the matte'^ is 
then to bee referred to the wardens, who shall imp^'tially 
Judge betwixt the maste"" and such ComplaynantSc And yf 
yt shall appeare to them that any parent shall make causelesse 
Complaynt against the m'' in this behalfe, and shall p^sist in 
and Continue so doeing, in such case the wardens shall have 
power to discharge the m^ of the care and charge of the 
Children of such parents. But yf the thing Complayned of 
be true, and that the irf haue indeed bene guiltie of minister- 
ing excessiue Correction, and shall appeere to them to con- 
tinue therein, notw^'standing that they haue advised him 
otherwise, in such case, as also in the case of too much 
lenitye or any othe"" great neglect of dutye in his place p''sisted 
in. It shalbe in the powe*" of the Wardens to call the Inhabi- 
tants togeithe'' to Conside"" wdiithe'" it were not meet to 
discharge the m'" of his place, that so somme othe"^ more 
desirable may be provided. And because It is difficult, yf 



30 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

not Impossible, to give p^'ticula'' rules y' shall reach all cases 
w'^'^ may fall out, therefore, fo"" a Conclusion, It is ordered 
and agreed in generall, that, where p'"ticula'" rules are Avant- 
ing, ther*" it shalbe a p'te of the office and dutye of the War- 
dens to orde"^ and dispose of all things that Concerne the 
schoole, in such sort as in ther® vvisedome and discretion they 
shall Judge most Conducible fo'" the glory of God & the 
trayning vp of the Children of the Towne in religion, learn- 
ing, and Civilitie : - — And these orde""' to bee Continued till 
the maio'' p''te of the Towne shall see cause to alte^ any p^'te 
thereof." 

So far as is known this committee of " Wardens or over- 
seers " was the first school committee appointed by any mu- 
nicipality in this country. 

It is also worthy of notice that these men must be residents 
of Dorchester, and that they were appointed for life. The 
town, however, reserved the right to displace any one of 
them for "weighty reasons." To the "Wardens or over- 
seers" was assigned " the charge, oversight, and ordering of 
all things concerning the school in such manner as expressed " 
in the extensive rules and orders then adopted, and given 
above. 

Here was the beginning of the public management of 
schools by the municipality, and here is the essential begin- 
ning of the American Public School System. 

It is of but little consequence whether the Boston Latin 
School, or the school in Charlestown, Salem, Newbury, or 
elsewhere, was the first school. It is of importance that this 
Dorchester school was supported by taxation, and that its 
government and oversight and control were not placed in 
the hands of "the seven men," i.e., the "selectmen;" but 
that here the example was set which is to-day followed by all 
America, of the local citizens, qualified by law to vote in local 
afi'airs, selecting men to have the control and ordering of all 
matters pertained to the local public schools. We have now 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 31 

all over this country a system of public schools, established 
and controlled by law, and under the management of school 
committees or directors of the local towns or cities, city 
school boards, or county school boards, or officers of equiva- 
lent power, whatever their local appellation may be. 

When "Mr. Haward, Deacon Wisevvall, and Mr. Atherton 
[were] elected to bee the first wardens or overseers," then 
Dorchester had taken the second important step, — the first 
having also been taken by her in establishing a tax for her 
first school, the beginning of the American system of public 
schools. 

The essential element of the public school system is, that 
these schools are supported by tax. The second feature is, 
that they are under control of officers appointed by the 
people for that purpose. 

If, after the fullest consideration, it shall appear that these 
two steps were first taken by the town of Dorchester, and 
that she also established the first town-meeting, it will surely 
be a matter of just pride to the people who live within the 
bounds of this ancient municipality. If the Boston of to-day 
can justly claim (1) the establishment of the first New 
England town-meeting, and (2) can point to her Latin 
School as the first public school established for secondary 
education, and to the Mather School as the first school for 
which the people of a town were taxed, and if she shall 
receive from the future historian (3) the credit of her School 
Committee, from the Dorchester District, being the first 
school committee of this broad land then appointed to over- 
see the first publicly supported school, — then, surely, we are 
warranted in considering this occasion as commemoratins: the 
planting of that seed which has germinated and grown to a 
great tree, which now furnishes a delio-htful and refreshing 
shade for the whole nation. 

Our public school system is unquestionably Ihe most dis- 
tinctively American institution which this country has pro- 



32 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

duced, and since that great civil contest between the two 
civilizations of the North and the South was settled by the 
war of secession, this system has been growing to a greater 
and greater importance. 

The prevailing sentiment of the world to-day is, that, for 
any successful government '' of the people and by the peoi)le," 
there must be universal intelligence, and hence universal 
education. 

The only way that this can be accomplished is by schools 
established by the government, — " the propeity of the State 
being taxed to educate the children of the State." 

It may not prove uninteresting, and, I am sure, not un- 
profitable, to consider briefly some of the provisions first 
made by which to govern this early school. 

It is to be observed at the outset that our system of schools 
is a gradual growth. 

The schools of this Commonwealth to-day are absolutely 
free to all the children, and we have a compulsory law to 
oblige them all to attend either these or other schools. 

But it is really only a few years since this great system 
became absolutely free. Till the Free Text-Book law went 
into eflfect, in 1885, there had always been something for the 
parent to pay. At first there was a " rate bill ; " then the 
teacher " boarded round ; " the wood was sometimes con- 
tributed by the parents sending the children, and in propor- 
tion to the number of children sent. Even after these 
customs were abolished, and all these things were paid for 
out of the public money, it still remained that the books 
were furnished only at the expense of the parent. Now, 
however, the schools of the Old Bay State 'avq, absolutely free, 
— and she was the first of all the States to make them so. 

The first step in this road which has brought us on to this 
full freedom of the schools was the establishment of that first 
school in Dorchester, over which Rev. Thomas Walerhouse 
presided as teacher in 1639, and which, a few years later, 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 33 

was placed under the management of the " Wardens," — 
"Mr. Haward, Deacon Wisewall, and Mr. Atherton." 

Among the " rules and orders " then put in operation is one 
requiring the wardens " from tyme to tyme to see that the 
schoole house be kept in good and sufficient repaire," and if 
necessary to " repayre to the 7 men of the towne for the tyme 
being, who shall have power to tax the towne with such some 
or sommes as shall be requested for the repayering of the 
schoole house as aforesayed." 

Another provision, it will be observed, was "that every 
year at or before the end of the 9th month there bee brought 
to the schoole house 12 sufficient cart or wayne loads of 
wood for fewell . . . the cost and charge of which 
sayd wood to bee borne by the schollers for the tyme being 
who shalbe taxed for the purpose at the discretion of the 
saj^d wardens." 

From March to the first of October the school should be- 
gin at seven o'clock and close at five, with a recess at noon 
of two hours, which was from eleven to one. For the re- 
maining five months it should begin at eight and end at four. 

The fifth article very emphatically hints at that democratic 
principle which tolerated no caste, or class, or social distinc- 
tion, which should abridge the legal and political rights of 
any. It provided that the schoolmaster should receive 
"equally and impartially such as shall be presented and 
committed to him for that end, whether theer parents bee 
poore or rich, not refusing any who have right or interest in 
the schoole." 

The sixth is also an article of interest to us at this day : — 

" Such as shall be Committed to him he shall diligently 
instruct, as they shalbe able to learne, both in humane learn- 
ing and good litterature, & likewyse in poynt of good man- 
ne"^* and dutifull behauviou'" towards all, specially there supio" 
as they shall haue occasion to bee in ther^ presence, whithe"" 
by meeting them in the streete or otherwyse," 



34 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

Finally, the article "9thly," of extreme length, discussed 
the subject of corporal punishment, and voiced the sentiment 
of the times in saying : " And because the Rodd of Correc- 
tion is an ordinance of God, necessary somet3aiies to bee 
dispensed unto children, but such as may be easily abused 
by one"" much seuritie and rigou'' on the one hand, or by one"" 
much indulgence and lenitye on the other," hence the good 
people of the town order that " the schoolemasf " " shall 
haue full powe"" to minisf Correction to all or any of his 
scholle''^ w*^out respect of persons." This rule further 
l)rovides that the parents shall not "hinder the master 
therein ;" but if they are aggrieved in such regard they can 
make complaint to the wardens, who shall hear and impar- 
tially decide between them. 

And now let us pause for a moment and consider the im- 
portance of this action of the town by which, as we have seen, 
the whole charge of this important matter, the public school, 
was placed in the hands of these three prominent citizens. 
The fathers builded better than they knew. Primarily, 
they had in mind the proper nurturing of their own children, 
but they were laying important foundations on which future 
ages should build a temple, at once Inrge and grand and 
beautiful. They here established the principle of represen- 
tion. The elements of a republic were manifest in the selec- 
tion of three of their foremost citizens, who, as trustees, 
should act for the body politic in this important matter. Of 
the three men chosen we know but little, yet they played 
conspicuous parts in the early history of this town. Deacon 
John Wiswall was one of the earliest selectmen of the 
town, having arrived in Dorchester, with the second emigra- 
tion from England, in 1635. In 1()()5 he was one of a com- 
mittee appointed by the town and empowered to treat with 
Joseph, the Indian sachem, who, in behalf of himself and 
others, had made a demand for land, and this committee were 
empowered "to make full and conipleat agreement (with 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 35 

the Indians), if they see their demands be but reason." It 
should be a cause of great satisfaction to us that the historian 
of the town is able to make this record : " In all their deal- 
ings with the Indians the town acted honorably and gener- 
ously and paid a fair compensation." 

Humphrey Atherton, the second on the committee, came to 
Dorchester in 1635 from Lancashire in the ship "James." He 
joined the church in 1(336, and was admitted a free man, and 
made a grantee of Neck lands in 1637. He was a member of 
the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and was its 
captain from 1650 to 1658. He commanded the Suffolk 
Regiment, with the title of niMJor-general, and was the chief 
military officer in New England. He was selectman and 
town treasurer for many years, and was deputy to the Gen- 
eral Court from 1638 to 1 641 . He was Speaker of the House 
in 1659. He was engaged in several expeditions against the 
Narragansett Indians, and the historian of Dorchester says of 
him : " He was nmch respected for his religious character and 
public spirit, and often employed by the colonial government 
with civil and military affairs. He had great experience and 
skill in the treatment of the Indians, with whom his public 
duties brought him in frequent contact." His death occurred 
Sept. 16, 1661, by falling from his horse, and his chaiacter 
and station are commemorated in the following lines upon his 
gravestone : — 

" Here lyes ovr Captaine, & Maior of Svffolk was withall ; 
A Godly Majistrate was he, and Maior Generall, 

Two Trovps of Hors with him heare came, svch worth his love did crave ; 
Ten Companyes of Foot also movrning marcht to his grave. 
Let all that Read be sure to keep the Faith as he has don. 
With Christ he lives now Crown'd, his name was Hvmpry Atherton." 

Robert Howard, the third of this committee, sometimes 
placed first, was selectman for many years. He, too, came 
with the second emigration, in 1635. He received a portion 
of land in the first division, in 1638, and was made free man 



3() DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

in 1643. While Deacon Wis wall was absent on a voyage to 
England, Mr. Howard was Clerk of the Writs. These were 
the three men chosen by the inhabitants of Dorchester, for 
the term of their natural lives, to have the full charge of the 
school thus early established in this town. 

" On the 3rd day of May, 1692, Samuel Clap, Samuel 
ToplifF and Hopestill Clap select men received of Joseph 
Capin a Latin Book (dictionary) which doth belong to the 
town, and delivered said book to Mr. Joseph Lord, school- 
master, to be improved for the benefit of the school, and 
said Lord is to deliver it to some of the select men when 
he leaves the school in Dorchester." Thus reads a record of 
the town made in the year 1692. This "Latin Book" was 
entitled " Cooper's Thesaurus Romanse et Britannicae," and 
was originally presented to the school by Rev. Richard 
Mather. By a memorandum on the margin of one of the 
leaves the date of the original presentation seems to be 1669. 
This book, in good condition, except the loss of the title-page, 
remained the property of the school for more than two hun- 
dred years, but unfortunately cannot now be found. The 
author of this dictionary, Thomas Cooper, was born at Ox- 
ford about the yeav 1517. He was schoolmaster at Oxford, 
and afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, and later still at Winches- 
ter. The dictionary contained, in a bold handwriting, the 
names of many of the teachers, including all the earlier mas- 
ters of the school on Meeting-house Hill. A worthy list of 
masters this has been. 

The following brief mention of these masters is Gathered 
from the " History of Dorchester" : Rev. Thomas Waterhouse 
was the pioneer. He was a graduate of Cambridge Univer- 
sity, England, and came to this country upon the breaking 
out of the English civil war. He returned to England later, 
and became master of the public school in Colchester. He 
died in H)><0, nearly eighty years of age. The historian says 
of him : " He was a very useful man, of a blameless con- 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY^ PH.D. 37 

versation, and very firm in his non-conformity."^ Menry 
Butler was the teacher of this school as early as 1648. He 
received his master's degree at Cambridge University. Later 
he returned to England where he preached many years and 
suffered great losses by fines for his non-conformity. He died 
in 1696, aged 72. The third teacher was Ichabod Wiswall, 
who was born in Dorchester in 1637, and entered Harvard 
College in 1654. He was afterwards niinister in Duxbury, 
and is called "a nearly faultless man." He stood very high 
in the estimation of the whole Plymouth colony for his tal- 
ents, piety, and incorruptible integrity. He died in the year 
1700 in the sixty-third year of his age. 

The following is a copy of the contract, signed by Ichabod 
Wiswall, and by Edward Bieck in the name of the rest of 
the selectmen : — 

" First, that Ichabod, w"' the Consent of his Father, shall 
from the 7th of March next Ensuinge, vnto the end of three 
full years from thence be compleate and ended, instructe and 
teach in a free Schoole in Dorchester all such Cheldren as by 
the Inhabitants shall be Committed vnto his Care, in English, 
Latine and Greeke as from time to time the Cheldren shall 
be Capable, and allso insti^uct them in writinge as hee shall 
be able ; w*''^ is to be vnderstood such Cheldren as are so fare 
enf®*^ all redie to knowe there Leters and to spell some what ; 
and also prouided the schoole howse from time to time be 
kept in good order and comfortable for a man to abide in, 
both in somer and in Winter, by prouiding Fire seasonably, 
so that it may neather be preiudiciall to master nor Scholar — 
and in cause of palpable neglect and matter of Complaint and 
not reformed, it shall not binde the m'' to Endanger his health. 

"Secondly, that the Selectmen of Dorchester shall, from 
yeare to yeare, every yeare paye or cause to be paid unto 
Icabod or his Father by his assignment the full somme of 
Twentie Five Pounds, two thirdes in wheate, pease, or bar- 

1 Palmer's "Non-Conformists' Memorial." Vol. II., page 408. 



38 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

ley, nijirchanlable, and one thirdc in Indian, att or before 
the first of March, dueringe the three yeares, yearly, at 
price Currant, w'^'^ is to be vnderstoode the price w°'^ the 
generall (Jourt shall from time to time appoint." 

AVilliam Pole, an early settler in Dorchester, is the next 
uf)()n the list, and after him we find Hope Atherton, son of 
Major Humphrey Atherton, born in Dorchester in 164(j, 
graduated at Harvard in 1665, and taught the school in 1668 
and 1669. In 1670 he became minister at Hatfield. He 
died in 1677, from the effects of severe sufferings and expo- 
sures in an expedition against the Indians, in which he was 
chaplain. Then comes John Foster, the son of Capt. 
Ilopestill Foster, born in Dorchester, 1646, graduated at 
Harvard 1667, established the tirst printing-house in Boston 
in 1675 or 1676, was the author and printer of almanacs, and 
printed many of the leading books written in New England 
at that day. He died in 1681, at the early age of thirty-three. 
Then comes flames Minot, another son of Dorchester and of 
Harvard, and William Denison, who was born in Roxbury, 
and graduated at Harvard ; and John Williams, another 
Roxbury boy and Harvard graduate ; and Jonathan Pier- 
pont, also from Roxbury and from Harvard ; and Edward 
Mills, boi'n in Braintree and a son of Harvard ; and Jose})h 
Lord, of Charlestown and of Harvard ; and John Robinson, of 
Dorchester and of Harvard ; and John Swift, born in Milton 
and a son of Harvard ; and Richard Billings, of Dorchester and 
of Harvai-d ; Samuel Wis wall, the son of Enoch, and grand- 
son of Elder Thomas Wiswall, also a graduate of Harvard ; 
and Elijah Danforth, son of Dorchester and of Harvard ; and 
Peter Thatcher, of Milton and of Harvard; Ebenezer Devo- 
tion, of Brookline and of Harvard ; Samuel Fiske, of Brain- 
tree and of Harvard ; Ebenezer White, of Dorchester and of 
Harvard ; Samuel Danforth, son of Rev. John, of Dorchester, 
and a graduate of Harvard ; Daniel Witham, of Gloucester 
and of Harvard; Isaac Billinijs, of Dorchester and of Har- 



HISTORICAL ADDKESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 39 

vard ; and now have reached the beijinninor of the eighteenth 
century. Phillips Payson, of Dorchester and of Harvard; 
Samuel Moseley, of Dorchester and of Harvard ; Supply 
Clap, of Dorchester and of Harvard , Noah Clap, of Dor- 
chester and of Harvard ; Josiah Pierce, from Woburn and of 
Harvard ; Philip Curtis, of Roxbury and of Harvard ; Thomas 
Jones, of Dorchester and of Harvard ; Edward Bass, of Dor- 
chester and of Harvard ; James Humphrey, who was the son 
of Jonas, the son of Hopestill, the son of Elder Jonas Hum- 
phrey, — I need not say that he was Dorchester born, — he 
also graduated at Harvard ; Pelatiah Grlover, also Dorchester 
born ; James Baker, of Dorchester and of Harvard ; Daniel 
Leeds, of Dorchester and of Harvard; William Bowman, of 
Watertown and of Harvard ; Samuel Coolidge, of Watertown 
and of Harvard : Col. Samuel Pierce, of Dorchester; Onesi- 
phorus Tileston, of Boston and of Harvard ; Edward H. Rob- 
bins, of Milton and of Harvard; and it must be that we are 
now reaching modern times, as we find a middle name. 
Oliver Everett, of Dedham and of Harvard, the father of 
Edward Everett; Aaron Smith, of HoUis, N.H., and of 
Harvard, and this is the first instance of a teacher of this 
school who was not born in the State of Massachusetts, after 
the time of the masters, who graduated at Cambridge Uni- 
versity, England ; Samuel Shuttles worth, of Dedham and of 
Harvard ; Samuel Cheney, of Roxbury and of Harvard ; 
Joseph Gardner Andrews, of Boston and of Harvard ; Sam- 
uelTopliff, of Dorchester and of Harvard ; Theophilus Capen, 
of Stoughton and of Harvard ; and James Blake Howe, of 
Dorchester and of Harvard. 

The following notice of Mr. Howe is taken from the 
" History of Dorchester," page 545 : — 

'' James Blake Howe, son of Abraham and Patience 
(Blake) Howe, was born in Dorchester, March 31, 1773, 
and graduated at Harvard College in 1794. He was the 
first teacher in the brick school-house erected on Meetins;- 



40 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

house Hill, in 1798, having previously tauofht in the old 
wooden house on the westerly side of the hill." ^ 

1 EDWARD EVERETT'S SCHOOL RECITATION. 

The preceptors of the Hon. Edward Everett, in the public schools of his native 
town, were Rev. James Blake Howe and Rev. Wilkes Allen. It was in one of these 
schools that the youthful Everett recited, at an exhibition, a poem, generally sup- 
posed to begin with these words : — 

"You'd scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public on the stage." 

; In order to ascertain the fact regarding this matter, which has been a question of 
doubt for half a century, the editor of this work applied to Dr. Harris, of Gore 
Library, — a son of the late Rev. Dr. Harris, who baptized the infant Edward, April 
13, 1794, — and learned that the poem alluded to was not the one spoken by him, but 
the following, as prefixed to the letter, dated Cambridge, Feb. 1, 1850, in which Dr. 
Harris stated, " I have seen copies of these lines, differing slightly and variously from 
the foregoing, which, according to my recollections, agree more nearly with the 
original than the others. I mean to say that the lines now sent ai-e nearer to the 
original than other copies [ have seen. The "little orator" has become a great one. 
The expression " little roan " applied to the color of Edward Everett's hair. 

Lines written for Edward Everett, when a child, by the Rev. Thaddeus Mason 

Harris : — 

Pray how should I, a little lad, 

In speaking, make a figure? 
You're only joking, I'm afraid, — 

Do wait till I am bigger. 
But since you wish to hear my part. 

And urge me to begin it, 
I'll strive for praise, with all my heart. 

Though small the hope to win it. 
I'll tell a tale how Farmer John 

A little roan-colt bred, sir, 
And every night and every morn 

He watered and he fed, sir. 
Said neighbor Joe to Farmer John, 

" Aren't you a silly dolt, sir, 
To spend such time and care upon 

A little useless colt, sir? " 
Said Farmer John to neighbor Joe, 

" I bring my little roan up, 
Not for the good he now can do, 

But will do when he's grown up. 
The moral you can well espy, 

To' keep the tale from spoiling : 
The little coll, you think, is I, — 

I know it by your smiling. 
And now, my friends, please to excuse 

My lisping and my stammers ; 
I, for this once, have done my best, 

And so — I'll make my manners. 

{From Loring's Ifundred Orators.) 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 41 

Consider for a moment the character of these forty-five 
teachers of the Dorchester school. Twenty- nhie (^f them 
became clergymen, many of whom acquh'ed distinction in 
their profession, and some were among the foremost men of 
New England. Several of them became physicians, others 
lawyers, one a distinguished judge, and one lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of the colony. What a remarkable set of teachers ! 
A succession of forty- five men, the first two graduates of 
Cambridge, England, and nearly every one of the others a 
graduate of Flarvard College. More than half the entire 
number were natives of Dorchester. What an unusual 
record for a small town in those early days ! Nor is Dor- 
chester's record at Harvard any less remarkable. Samuel 
Mather, son of Rev. Richard Mather, of Dorchester, born 
in England in 1626, graduated at Harvard College in 1643, 
and was the first graduate of that college from this town. 
Prior to the year 1700 Dorchester sent twenty young men to 
Harvard College; between the years of 1700 and 1800 
thirty-nine more, and between 1800 and 1850 twenty-nine 
others. From this record it appears that Dorchester sent to 
Harvard College eighty-eight young men in two hundred 
and seven years. These facts speak volumes for the intelli- 
gence, enterprise, thrift, and high estimate of good learning 
which characterized from the beo;innino; the inhabitants of 
Dorchester. 

The extent to which this ancient town of Dorchester is 
indebted, at the present day, for the thrift, prosperity, and 
intelligence of her people, to the schoolmasters of the olden 
times, can scarcely be estimated. 

William Pole taught the school from 1659 to 1668. He 
was also " Clerk of y*" writs & Register of Births, Deaths, 
& Marriages in Dorchester ten years." 

; Samuel Coolidge taught the school for about twenty years, 
closing his service just, one hundred years ago. "He was 
noted for his beautiful penmanship ; was distinguished for 



42 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

his abilities as a teacher, and for his high classical attain- 
ments."^ He was a member of the board of selectmen and 
assessors ten years, being their chairman four years. One 
hundred and two years ago he was elected both town clerk 
and treasurer, as the successor of Noah Clap, another school- 
master, who had held these two offices thirty-eight years, and 
who for ten years succeeded him as town clerk. 

This Noah Clap taught the school at various times between 
1735 and 1769 ; eighteen or twenty years in all. Mr. 
Trask, in the "History of Dorchester," says of Mr. Clap: 

"No one, since the settlement of the town, has had so much 
to do with its concerns, or was so well acquainted with its 
interests ; indeed, he knew the history and family relations 
of most of those who had lived here previous to his day. 
He was a son of Deacon Jonathan Clap, grandson of Mr. 
Nathaniel Clap ('a choice man'), and great-grandson of 
Nicholas, one of the early settlers, all of Dorchester. He 
was born January 25, 1718, and graduated at Harvard 
College in 1735, at the age of seventeen. He then studied 
theology and became a pre.icher, but his health was so feeble 
that he never entertained the idea of settling in the ministry, 
although he frequently preached in this and the neighboring 
towns. He kept the Grammar School in Dorchester for 
nearly twenty years, and for a generation after his decease 
was designated as Master Noah. He was selectman, town 
treasurer, and assessor upwards of thirty years, and town 
clerk about forty-seven years. While in this capacity, 
his house was burned ; and although every exertion was 
made to save the records, at the expense of other property, 
a part was lost, but was afterwards supplied, in a great meas- 
ure, through his exertion and perseverance. He had a very 
retentive memory and could repeat the tales of former years 
with great interest. He was so conscientious in regard to 
the truth that he was rarely known to make an assertion 

^ Hist, of Dorchester, page 531. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 43 

unless prefixed by the term 'may be.' The late Rev. Dr. 
Harris preached a sermon on the occasion of his death, in 
which he said: 'I never knew a person farther removed 
from every appearance of duplicity, or more singularly 
remarkable for a cautiousness in speech, and inviolable 
veracity. He was not fond of affirmations, and hesitated 
even as to the accuracy of his own judgment and the cer- 
tainty of his own information. This singular cautiousness 
was the result of the most inflexible reverence for truth. It 
was accompanied by a meek, humble, diffident, and modest 
spirit, and a plain, undisguised, unafiected artlessness of 
manner. A very observable and lovely trait in his charac- 
ter was his candor and charitableness in judging of others. 
Of this he gave the most pleasing proofs in his unwillingness 
even to hear anything to the disadvantage of persons. He 
would never patiently listen to the reports which might be in 
ciiculation of the misconduct of any ; and when they were 
mentioned in his presence he was always ready to palliate or 
excuse what he could not commend, and seemed averse to 
believe ill news, flying rumors, and petty scandal. Of 
course he was never known to repeat them. . . . The late 
Dr. Belknap found great assistance in his most important re- 
searches from consulting Mr. Clap ; and such was his won- 
derful accuracy, even in chronological dates, that his guarded 
declarations had all the fidelity and certainty of printed 
documents.' " 

It may well be believed that in such a community the 
schoolmaster was an honored and an honorable man. The 
masters of Dorchester were thoroughly educated men, and 
of high standing in the community. They would compare 
favorably with Richard Norris, of Salem, who taught there, 
1640 to 1670; with Elijah Corlet, of Cambridge, who con- 
tinued in office over fifty years, and except in years of ser- 
vice, with the famous Ezekiel Cheever, who arrived in this 
country in 1637, taught in New Haven twelve j^ears, in Ips- 



44 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

wich ten years, in Charlestown nine years, and was master 
of the Boston Latin School thirty-eight years, until his death, 
in 1708, at the age of ninety-three years, having taught 
for nearly seventy years. It was in commemoration of the 
two last named that Cotton Mather wrote the following lines, 
with more of truth than poetry : — 

" 'Tis Corlet's pains, and Clieever's, we must own, 
That thou, New England, art not Sythia grown." 

Their salaries averaged well with the minister's, ranging 
from twenty to fifty pounds a year. A mode of paying the 
master not uncommon was a fixed sum by the town, with 
the privilege of charging a reasonable tuition for those pu- 
pils whose parents were able to pay, but in every case it was 
expressly provided that no poor children should be denied 
the privilege of attending the school, the town always assum- 
ing the charge. 

Eight years after the establishment of the Dorchester 
school, an order passed the General Court, Nov. 11, 1647, 
recognizing and sanctioning the public schools, and making 
their support compulsory upon ever}' town having the req- 
uisite number of householders. A tovvn of fifty house- 
holders must support a school for learning to read and write, 
and a town of one hundred families or householders should 
support a Grammar School, where the youth could be fitted 
for the University. 

Hon. Joseph White, in the Fortieth Annual Report of the 
Secretary of the Board of Education, thus comments on this 
law and the schools of the time : — 

" This notable law, giving voice, as it did, to the con- 
victions and the experience of the people, was everywhere 
cheerfully obeyed. On every side, as the ancient forests 
gave way before the hardy pioneers, in their slow but sure 

1 Fortieth Annual Report, Mass., page 117. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 45 

advance from the sea-board into the interior, the meet ins:- 
house and the school-house rose side bv side with the loaf 
huts of the settlers, thus converting the desolate places of 
the wilderness into the homes of a Christian people, — the 
' seed-plots ' of a higher and purer life for ages yet to 
come. 

"No grander spectacle is presented in the history of any 
people than that of these ancient men, thus struggling for a 
scanty subsistence amid the jnnvations and dangers of border 
life, and often for itself against the attacks of a stealthy and 
relentless foe, and yet, as if with a prophetic prevision of 
the future, sparing no effort in their deep poverty, shrinking 
from no sacrifice of time and money, needful to plant the 
pillars of the new Commonwealth — their beloved ' New 
England,' as they were wont to call it — on the everlasting 
foundations of universal intelligence and virtue. 

" Thus, within a single score of years from the landing on 
the shores of the bay, the new State is successfully launched, 
fully equipped for the voyage, we trust, of all the ages, with 
a good array of towns, each with a government wisely 
adapted to its needs, and all bound together by the strong 
bonds of a vigorous central government of their own crea- 
tion, and administered for the common good, while the 
meeting-house and the school-house, in every township, and 
'v*= Universitie' at Carabridsre, were all workino^ together 
'for the building up of hopeful youths in way of learning, 
for the service of the country in future times." 

And Horace Mann says : — 

" As an innovation upon all preexisting policy and usages, 
the establishment of free schools was the boldest ever pro- 
mulgated since the commencement of the Christian era. As 
a theory, it could have been refuted and silenced by a more 
formidable array of arguments and experience than was ever 
marshalled against any other opinion of human origin. But 
time has ratified its soundness. Two centuries now proclaim 



46 DOECHESTER CELEBRATION. 

it to be as wise as it was courageous, as beneficent as it was 
disinterested. It was one of those grand mental and moral 
experiments whose effect cannot be determined in a single 
generation. But now, according to the manner in which 
human life is computed, we are the sixth generation from its 
founders, and have we not reason to l)e grateful, both to God 
and man, for its numberless blessings? The sincerity of our 
gratitude must be tested by our efforts to perpetuate and 
improve what they established. The gratitude of lips only 
is an unhol}' offering." ^ 

The three following propositions describe the broad and 
everenduring foundation on which the common school system 
of Massachusetts reposes : — 

The successive generations of men, taken collectively, con- 
stitute one great Commonwealth. 

The property of this Commonwealth is pledged for the 
education of all its youth up to such a point as will save them 
from poverty and vice, and prepare them for the adequate 
performance of their social and civil duties. 

The successive holders of this property are trustees, bound 
to the faithful execution of their trust b}'^ the most sacred 
obligations ; because embezzlement and pillage from children 
and descendants are as criminal as the same offences Avhen 
perpetrated against contemporaries. 

Recognizing these eternal principles of national ethics, the 
constitution of Massachusetts, — the fundamental law of the 
State, — after declaring (among other things), in the pre- 
amble to the first section of the fifth chapter, that " the en- 
couragement of arts and sciences and all good literature 
tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the Christian 
religion, and the great benefit of this and the other United 
States of America," proceeds, in the second section of the 
same chapter, to set forth the duties of all future legis- 

1 Horace Mann. Tenth Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education. 



HISTOEICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MOWRY, PH.D. 47 

latures and magistrates, in the following noble and im- 
pressive language : — 

"Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused gen- 
erally among the body of the people, being necessary for the 
preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these 
depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of 
education in the various parts of the country, and among the 
different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legis- 
lators and magistrates, in all future periods of this Common- 
wealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, 
and all seminaries of them, especially the University of 
Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the 
towns ; to encourage private societies and public institutions, 
rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, 
arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural 
history of the country ; to countenance and inculcate the 
principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and 
piivate charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctu- 
ality in their dealings; sincerity, good-humor, and all social 
affections and generous sentiments among the people."^ 

The following rules for the teachers of the town of 
Dorchester were first passed August 26, 1805, and with 
amendments and additions, June 27, 1810. They are here 
reproduced from a printed copy preserved by the venerable 
Deacon Humphreys, now eighty-nine years of age, who lives 
in the same house in which he was born, and out of which 
he has not slept more than a dozen nights in his life. The 
place where he lives has been the " homestead " of the family 
for two hundred and fifty five years, the land being taken 
by his ancestor, Jonas Humphreys, five years before the 
first school was established. 

^ Horace Mann. Tenth Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of 
Education. 



48 dorchester celebration. 

"Rules and Regulations to be Observed by the 
Teachers of the Public Schools in Dorchester, 
1810." 

"I. It is recommended that the several lostructors daily 
lead in a devotional exercise ; and it is expected that suitable 
attention be paid by them to the morals of those under their 
charge, that they be instructed in the principles of Religion, 
as well as the various branches of human literature, suitably 
adapted to their age and standing. 

"II. As the Scholars are divided into Classes, it is 
recommended that the following books be made a part of 
their studies, viz. 

" For the 4th Class. — Child's First Book, and Mrs. Bar- 
bauld's lessons. 

" For the 3d Class. — Temple's Child's Assistant, Perry's 
Spelling book (new edition), Bingham's Young Lady's 
Accidence, the New Testament, and Bingham's Geographical 
Catechism. 

"For the 2d Class. — Bingham's Columbian Orator, 
Morse's Aliridgment of Geography, and the Bible. 

"For tJie 1st Class. — Temple's Arithmetic, Miss Hannah 
Adams' History of New England, and the Bible. Also, the 
American Preceptor, and the book directed by the General 
Court to be used in Schools. For the more advanced. Pike's 
or Walsh's Arithmetic, or President Webber's Mathematics. 

"III. Should it be found desirable that any other book 
or books than those above named should be introduced, the 
assent of the School Committee shall be first obtained. 

"IV. A part of Saturdays shall be spent in the recitation 
of the Catechism ; and the master shall hear the Children in 
that Catechism which they shall severally bring with a 
written request from the Parents ; and they shall repeat, 
also, Hymns, or other lessons tending to promote Religion 
and Virtue, at the discretion of the master. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MGWRY, PH.D. 49 

" V. As to School hours, there shall be spent three hours, 
at least, in the school, each half day ; and the several School 
Masters in the town are allowed the forenoon of all town 
meeting days for the choice of public officers ; the after- 
noons of Saturday and Sacrament Lecture days, and those 
in which there is a public Catechizing; and two Election 
days, the Fourth of July, Commencement day; and if either 
of the Masters have any Scholar to offer to the College at 
Cambridge, he shall have liberty to attend to that business. 

" VI. Children are not to be admitted to the Schools till 
they are able to stand up, and read words of itwo sj'Uables, 
and keep their places. 

"VII. To prevent misconceptions between the School 
Masters and the School Committee, it is agreed, that if dis- 
satisfaction should arise in either party,, or if the Instructor, 
from other motives wishes to retire, three weeks' notice shall 
be given by either party for the discontinuance of the School. 

" VIII. The teacher, for the stipulated sum agreed on, is 
to make out his bill quarterly for payment. 

"IX. In case of vacancy in the instruction of either of 
the Schools, it shall be the duty of that one of the Committee, 
and of the Minister in whose ward it shall happen, to provide 
a new Preceptor. 

" X. It is recommended to the Town, that in future, the 
School Committee be chosen by written votes." 

First passsd August 26, 1805 ; and with amendments and 
additions, June 27, 1810. 

The little one has become a thousand. In 1849 names 
were assigned to the several schools in the town. At that 
time they were called the Everett School, the Mather School, 
the Adams School, the Gibson School, the Winthrop School, 
the Eliot School, the Norfolk School, the Washington School, 
the Neponset School, the Bowdoin School, the Maverick 
School, and the Butler School. These have undergone va- 
rious changes, until now we have the Dorchester-Evei*ett, 



50 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

th^ Gibson, the Harris, the Mather, the Minot, the Pierce, 
the Stoughlon, and the Tileston, with the various Primary 
schools which feed them. The High School was established in 
1852. William J. Rolfe was the first principal, and remained 
four years. He was followed by Jonathan Kimball, who held 
the position nine years. He was succeeded by Elbridge 
Smith, who has presided over the school with dignity and 
grace for twenty-four years. He graduated at Brown Uni- 
versity in 1841 ; was master of the celebrated Free Academy 
at Norwich, Conn., from 1856 to 1865, and before that 
achieved signal success as the master of the Cambridge High 
School.^ For nearly half a century he has been one of the 
most thorough and accomplished teachers of New England. 
He certainly has few superiors in the country in his knowl- 
edofe of Enoflish literature and skill in teaching it. 

Thirty years ago the amount of money appropriated by the 
town for the public education of each child between the ages 
of five and eighteen was $13.18. Dorchester was then the 
third in the Commonwealth in the amount of mone}' per 
child expended for school purposes, — only Nahant and 
Brookline expending more. 

Amono^ the earliest text-books in the schools, the foremost 
place was occupied by the New England Primer. The 
youngest pupils were taught their letters from a single leaf 
of coarse paper, with the alphabet and Lord's Prayer printed 
upon it, and which was pasted upon a thin piece of board, 
and covered over with horn to keep it from soiling. The 
horn being transparent, the letters could be seen through it. 
This was called a "horn-book." 

The elder Deacon Humphreys (the grandfather of Richard 
C. Humphreys, now an honored member of the Boston School 
Board) used to say that when he was in what is now the 
Mather School, between 1759 and 1767, there were three 
classes in the school. The lowest was called the " Psalter 

' From 1847 to 1856. 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY WILLIAM A. MO WRY, PH.D. 51 

class ; " the next, the " Testament class ; " then the " Bible 
class." The members of the "Bible class " were required to 
read about two chapters at the commencement and at the 
close of the school, to spell the words contained in these 
chapters, and to write and cipher. There were no other 
books used in the school until about 1765, when Dilworth's 
Spelling Book and Hodder's Arithmetic were introduced. 
Noah Webster's famous spelling-book was not published till 
1783. In the matter of text-books and supplementary books 
and various aids and appliances, we have certainly gone far 
beyond the fathers. In the broadening of the curriculum, 
and the attempt to introduce a little of everything into the 
schools, we may possibly have gone farther than is wise. 

It was Edward Everett, a former pupil of the Mather 
School, who, in his famous oration, delivered in 1856, at the 
dedication of the new building for the Dorchester-Everett 
School, used the foliowino: languas^e : — 

"I hold, sir, that to read the English language well, that 
is, with intelligence, feeling, spirit, and effect ; — to write 
with despatch a neat, handsome, legible hand (for it is, after 
all, a great object in writing to have others able to read what 
you write), and to be master of the four rules of arithmetic, 
so as to dispose at once with accuracy of every question of 
figures which comes up in practical life ; — I say, I call this 
a good education ; and if you add the ability to write gram- 
matical English, with the help of a very few hard words, I 
regard it as an excellent education. These are the tools ; — 
you can do nmch with them, but you are helpless without 
them. They are the foundation ; and unless you begin with 
these, all your flashy attainments, a little philosophy, a little 
physiology and a little geology, and all the other ologies and 
osophies, are but ostentatious rubbish." 

Probably there never has been a time hitherto in the whole 
history of the world when so much of the best thought has 
been given to the principles and methods of education of 



52 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

youth as is now given to this subject in our country. We 
are just beginning to learn something of the fundamental 
principles of pedigogy. We are now beginning to acquire 
some knowledge of the applications of psychology to the 
development of the young mind. "We are now, in this 
country, just beginning to lay the foundations for a new pro- 
fession, which may yet be considered the foremost and most 
important of all professions, — the profession of teaching. 
Some of the newer portions of our great Republic are perhaps 
making greater progress than the older sections. It is cer- 
tainly important for us who to-day represent the oldest of 
our American civilization, to see to it that we keep in the 
van, not lagging behind or allowing others to surpass us. 
The ancient town of Dorchester held a high rank for intelli- 
gence, thrift, and enterprise among the early settlements of 
New England. Its schools early gave it a prominent posi^ 
tion. It is to-day a part of the great city of Boston, — one 
of the most beautiful sections, — diversified in landscape, 
beautiful for situation, the garden of the city. Its inhabit- 
ants are distinguished for intelligence, learning, public spirit, 
and high character. They should be proud of their history. 
They should revere the memory of the fathers. They should 
cherish as the apple of the eye their system of excellent 
public schools. Let the time never come, let the day never 
davvn, when they shall hold any other earthly interest in 
hiirher estimation than the education of their youth." 



At the conclusion of the address of Mr. Mowry, the choir sang 
Rossini's " Night's shade no longer." 

It was expected that Mr. Hezekiah Butterworth would be 
present to read the poem prepared by him for the occasion, enti- 
tled " The Mary and John in Dorchester Bay ; " but being called 
suddenly away to the Pacific Coast on the morning of the celebra- 
tion, the poem was read by Professor George W. Blish, of 
Dorchester : ^ 



POEM BY MR. HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. 53 



THE MARY AND JOHN. 

It was Thanksgiving Day, and the sea-meadows lay 

In long russet curves 'round old Dorchester Bay ; 

The sturdy oak mansions had opened their halls, 

The chimneys had smoked on the Mystic and Charles, 

And Grandfather Minot looked out on the sea — 

The last of the Dorchester Pilgrims was he — 

And he leaned on his cane, and he said, " They are gone, . 

The Pilgrims who sailed on the ' Mary and John,' 

That old Thanksgiving Day, 

Into Dorchester Bay." 

On the settle he sat, and gazed on the sea. 
And questioning Thankful stood there at his knee; 
The blue-hirds had gone from the gentians blue, 
And white clouds'of gulls o'er the white waters flew. 
" Go, Thankful, and bring me the Bible," he said ; 
And then, where the Israelites murmured, he read, 
Then gazed on the sea. " They are gone, all are gone, 
The Pilgrims who came on thp ' Mary and John,' 

That old Thanksgiving Day, 

Into Dorchester Bay." 

" The Israelites murmured for Egypt," he said. 

'Gainst his locks, silver white, pressed a golden-tressed head. 

And he read the blue eyes, and some strange stories told 

Of Massasoit's feast on the Thanksgiving old ; 

Of the Psalm Day for Liitzen ; then gazed on the sea — 

" They longed for the bondage of Egypt," said he, 

" And looked back to the past. They are gone, all are gone. 

The Pilgrims who came on the ' Mary and John,' 

That old Thanksgiving Day, 

Into Dorchester Bay." 

" Fifty times. Father Minot, you say you have seen 
The white islands change into islands of green ; 
Fifty times in the elms seen the orioles' wings, 
And heard the red woodpeckers number the springs. 
I love the strange tales of the Pilgrims of yore, 
And of those who first landed on Dorchester's shore. 
How they sang on the sea ! They are gone, all are gone, 
The Pilgrims who sailed on the ' Mary and John,' ■' 

On that old summer dayi 

Into Dorchester Bay." ' ''■ 



54 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

" I, too, love the places where good has been done, 
For the field blossoms long that has victory won; 
I love old Point Allerton's headlands of pine, 
And the oak-shaded beaches that Dorchester line. 
'Twas there, oflf the Bay, on summer's first morn, 
That our anchor was dropped from the ' Mary and John, 
Near yonder green isles. They are gone, all are gone, 
The Pilgrims who came on the ' Mary and John,' 

On that fresh summer day. 

Into Dorchester Bay. 



"The western winds blew through horizons of calm, 

And sweet o'er the waves rose young Maverick's psalms; 

There dropped the white sails, and the anchor was cast, 

And we knelt down to God round the motionless mast, 

And our thanksgiving made, and psalms followed the prayer, 

And the birds sang with us on the spars in the air. 

'Twas our Thanksgiving Daj' ! They are gone, all are gone, 

The Pilgrims who sang on the 'Mary and John,' 

With the land birds that day. 

In old Dorchester Bay." 



" But, grandfather, listen : The islands turned gray, 

And the north winds came down, and the ice filled the bay ; 

Of food there was little ; the women lay low 

With fever and hunger; men wandered through snow 

To buy from the Indian a bushel of corn ; 

And returned not the sails of the ' Mary and John.' 

And what did you then? They are gone, all are gone, 

Who sailed 'neath the flag of the ' Mary and John.' 

What did you that day. 

By drear Dorchester Day? 

" You know that the sad heart turns homeward in pain, 

That murmured the Hebrews for Egypt again. 

And I have a question to ask of you here. 

On this to our homes and old memories dear : 

Did my mother whose grave now the gentians enfold, 

E'er long for old England, ani Dorchester old? 

And did you ever murmur, as those who are gone. 

Who sailed on the deck of the ' Mary and John,' 

From the home lands away. 

Far from Dorchester Bay?" 



POEM BY MR. HEZEKIAH BUTTEBWORTH. 55 

" I am glad that you asked me that question to-day, 

And my lips shall speak truly by Dorchester Bay. 

A true life has no secrets, but open it lies, 

As the lips of the sea and the smiles of the skies. 

No; the dark winter's passed and the snow changed to dew, 

And the bliiebirds sang sweet 'mid the violets blue, 

And they never looked back, those pioneers gone, 

They never looked back for the ' Mary and John.' 

In life's darkest day 

By lone Dorchester Bay. 

" All places are pleasant where good has been done, 
Where freedom and faith have their victories won. 
And your mother was thankful for that summer day 
That brought us, the Pilgrims, to Dorchester Bay. 
'Twas she named you Thankful, one white winter morn; 
May you never look back for the ' Mary and John ! '" 
His tears fell on her hair. " They are gone, all are gone, 
The Pilgrims who sailed on the ' Mary and John.' 

That first Thanksgiving Day, 

Into Dorchester Bay." 

They gazed on the sea, and the white gulls flew by, 
And the twilight of fire left to ashes the sky, 
The woods were all silent, the voiceless winds stayed. 
Till the bell of Neponset rang out o'er the shade. 
And solemn and slow was the bell's mellow tone ; 
On the still air resounded each stroke, deep and lone, 
And its voice seemed to say, " Gone, gone, all are gone; 
Gone the Pilgrims who sailed on the ' Mary and John.' " 

As its tones died away 

Over Dorchester Bay. 

Oh, let us be thankful for heroes like these, 
Who warred with the storms on the land and the seas ; 
Whose faith, overcoming the world and its guile. 
Ne'er turned from its course to life's palm-shaded Nile ; 
Who held that the hopes of the future outshone 
The treasures of fortune, the smiles of the throne. 
Give thanks for such men on the Thanksgiving morn. 
Such heroes as sailed on the " Mary and John." 

Let the bells ring to-day 

Around Dorchester Bay. 



56 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

The Chairman. —The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ever 
watchful of the interests of education, has placed the chairman- 
ship of her Board of Education in the supreme executive magis- 
trate, and it was expected until yesterday that His Excellency the 
Governor would be present on this occasion of congratulations; 
but in place thereof he has sent the following letter : — 

Boston, June 18, 1889. 
Mrs. Emily A. Fifield, Boston School Committee, Boston, Mass. : — 

Madam, — I have your favor of the 7th instant, and it would give me 
pleasure to accept the invitation thereby conveyed, to attend the cele- 
bration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the opening of 
the first public school in Dorchester, on the afternoon of the 22d instant, 
but the condition of my health is such that I must decline the same. 

In all matters that relate to education I take a deep interest, and it is 
eminently fitting that so significant an anniversary should be properly 
commemorated, as I am confident it will be. 

I am yours very respectfully, 

(Signed) OLIVER AMES. 

Letters were also received from the Hon. J. W. Dickinson, 
Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and from 
Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D.D., as follows: — 

Boston, June 21, 1889. 
Hon. Charles T. Gallagher: — 

Mt Dear Sir, — It would give me the highest pleasure to hb present 
at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the first public school in 
Dorchester, but an important engagement will prevent. 

One of the most memorable events in the history of the Common- 
wealth is the establishment, for the first time in the world, of free 
public schools supported by a general tax. The early colonists seemed 
to have had an intuitive idea that a free State and free public schools 
hold the relation of dependence on each other. They had no sooner 
come to land which they had chosen for their new homei and had pro- 
vided for their immediate physical wants, and had erected their simple 
places of worship, than they established schools for the free education 
of all the children. Ever since that day the public school and the 
church have conti'ibuted each its peculiar educating power in promot- 
ing the welfare of a free people. 



'•^ -LETTERS OF REGRET. 57 

Dorchester may well be proud of having organized the first free 
common school supported by a common tax, and of having chosen 
Mr. Howard and Deacon Wiswall and Mr. Atherton to be the first town 
Common School Committee known in the history of the race. 

May the public schools of Dorchester continue to be the pride of her 
people and the objects of her perpetual care. 

I am truly yours, 

(Signed) J. W. DICKINSON. 

1 Somerset Street, June 21, 1889. 
Hon. Charles T. Gallagher, President of the School Board : — 

My Dear Sir, — With many thanks for the courtesy of an invitation 
to the very interesting services to be held at Dorchester, I am reluct- 
antly obliged to decline the same because of an engagement previously 
made which I am unable to put off". 

Respectfully, 

HENRY M. dexter. 



The Chairman. — It has been the policy of the State of Massa- 
chusetts, in the establishment of school boards in cities, to provide 
that the mayor of the city shall be chairman of the School Board. 
Such is the case through most of the cities of the State, and such 
was the case in the city of Boston until within a few years past, 
until the duties of the executive increased to such an extent that 
the Legislature in its wisdom thought prOper to relieve the Ma3'or 
of many of the details of his work; and since the enactment of 
the new charter of the city of Boston, the Mayor has ceased to be 
a member of the School Boai'd ; but with that interest in educa- 
tional matters that has always characterized those who were his 
predecessors in office, he has always maintained a warm personal 
interest in the public schools, and comes to-da}- to bring the con- 
gratulations of the city of Boston on this festival occasion. I 
have the honor to introduce to you Hon. Thomas N. Hart, Mayor 
of Boston. 

The Mayor made a brief address, thanking the committee for 
their invitation, and said that he was always ready and willing to 
do everything for the benefit of the schools, and hoped the City 
Council would pass the order to purchase the needed school-sites. 



58 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

The Chairman. — I take pleasure in introducing to you Edwin 
P. Seaver, A.M., Superintendent of the Schools of Boston, the 
executive head of the School Department, and in addition to that 
" the brains and right arm," as it were, of the School Board. He 
was formerly a professor in Harvard University, that institution 
which furnished a long list of masters for many consecutive years 
to the school whose establishment we are celebrating. Mr. Seaver 
came to the Boston schools from there, and was for several years 
head-master of the English High School, and later for several 
years Superintendent of Schools. 

ADDRESS OF SUPT. EDWIN P. SEAVER. 

As a descendant of an old Dorchester family I feel that I 
may have a double right to join in the congratulations of this 
hour. My words must be brief, and they shall take the 
form of a corollary or appendix to what Mayor Hart has 
said. His Honor has justly emphasized the importance of 
making adequate, even generous, appropriations for the 
support of the public schools. In deciding, as he must 
decide under the tax- limit and the debt-limit laws, where 
curtailment of the city's expenses must fall, he is understood 
to be of the opinion that the schools should be the very last 
to suffer from the financial pruning-knife. A new street, a 
new bridge, a new park may be postponed for a while ; but 
the education of our children cannot be postponed. The 
support of the schools must be unremitting ; and it must 
increase steadily as our population increases, or asit migrates 
from one quarter of the city to another. We cannot say, 
this year being financially hard-pressed, we will support 
fewer schools, and the deficiency we will make up in some 
future more prosperous year. Occasional deprivation of 
support the school system cannot bear ; and the reason is 
obvious. While we have listened to the very interesting 
historical review of the schools of Dorchester which Mr. 
Mo wry has given us, what idea has formed itself more dis- 



ADDRESS OF SUPT. EDWIN P. SEAVER. 59 

tinctly in our minds than this : that the school system of 
Dorchester, or of Boston, or, indeied, of any community, is 
the fruit of a long process of growth, and not a thing which 
may be built up or torn down in a day. Now, precisely 
because our school system is a live and growing thing, and 
not a manufactured article, does it require unremitting 
attention and a steady supply of that which gives it life — 
money. 

As to the present condition of our schools, I may say that 
practically all the children in the city of school age are in 
school, as much, at least, as the law requires, which, as we 
know, is twenty weeks a year, from the age of eight to four- 
teen. I say practically all the children are in school ; for the 
amount of illegal non-attendance has, by careful investiga- 
tion, been found to be insignificant — only a few hundreds in 
a census of seventy thousand children. All our children, 
then, are in school, and seven-eighths of them are in the pub- 
lic schools. Again, our children stay in school much more 
than the law requires, — stay so long that a large proportion 
of them reach the upper classes. 

There is no large city in the whole land which surpasses 
Boston in these two respects : first, the large proportion of 
its population daily attending the public schools, uiid second, 
the large proportion of those in attendance who are found in 
the upper cla&ses of the Grammar Schools and in the High 
Schools. Outwardly, then, our schools show every indica- 
tion of healthy growth. On the part of the municipality 
there has been in the past no parsimonious spirit shown in 
their management. We feel confident that no such spirit 
will appear in the future. 

But even more cheering to our hearts are the tokens of the 
strong hold which our schools have on the afiections of the 
people. Those now in adult life, who have received the 
training of our Primary and Grammar Schools, recognize in 
that training a source of their present blessings. 



60 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

And should our schools ever need to be defended against 
unfriendly assailants, — which Heaven forbid, ^ no more 
devoted defenders will be found than the graduates who real- 
ize how much the schools have done for them. Surely it 
is most auspicious that our schools should be so deeply 
rooted in the grateful love of the whole community. May 
it ever continue so ! 

The Chairman. — It was expected that Samuel Eliot, LL.D., 
who has been with us to-day, would speak, but he has been obliged 
to leave early on account of a previous engagement. 

I take pleasure in introducing to you Rev. Father Ronan, of St. 
Peter's Church and parish, located on Meeting-house Hill. A 
Boston public school boy, interested in the cause of common 
schools and pubUc education, and representing a people who, from 
their adoption of this country as their home, have received and 
appreciated the benefits of the common school system and freedom 
of civil and religious liberty. 

ADDRESS OF REV. PETER RONAN. 

After listening to the very thdughtful, exhaustive, and 
instructive discourse of the historian of the day, little re- 
mains to be said. 

The graduating exercises of a school are always interesting, 
not only to the parents and immediate friends of the gradu- 
ates, but to the general public as well. 

Besides aflfording us an opportunity of judging the quality 
of the work of teacher and pupil during the school year, those 
exercises bring our thoughts back to our own school days 
when we, too, like the scholars before us, vied with each other 
for intellectual honors, and put forth our best efforts to obtain 
our diplomas. 

The Commencement Exercises of the Dorchester schools, 
while always interesting, are especially so to-day, when we 
commemorate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 



ADDRESS OF EEV. PETER RONAN. 6 1 

Dorchester's first school, and the pioneer in the long line of 
free public schools in this country. 

On this very pleasant occasion, we find ourselves review- 
ing history which reflects much credit upon the old town of 
Dorchester. Two hundred and fifty years ago the first 
settlers of this town, notwithstanding their great trials and 
numerous struggles such as fall to the lot of few men, found 
time to establish here on Meeting-house Hill a school for the 
instruction of the youth. The spirit of wisdom and fore- 
thought which filled the minds of the first inhabitants of Dor- 
chester hjis, it seems to me, greatly animated the heart of 
this nation ever since on the question of education. 

Almost from the time of the first settlement of Dorchester 
the school-house has been a favorite structure in our midst, 
and I hope the day will never come when it will cease to be 
popular, or the people refuse to support it in the most mu- 
nificent manner. 

While we may diff*er in our ideas and judgments regarding 
some of the important questions of the times, there is, how- 
ever, one great subject upon which we all agree, one plat- 
form upon which we stand, and from which we proclaim, that 
the children of this country shall and must be educated up to 
that standard which good citizenship demands. 

This course of policy is both wise and necessary for us, 
because experience has clearly shown that next to sound 
morality, the welfare of a nation largly depends upon the in- 
telligence of her people. 

As citizens of Dorchester we naturally take a just and 
special pride in to-day's celebration, and will carry away 
with us pleasing recollections of it. Before concluding, I 
wish to congratulate the present graduates upon the time 
and occasion of their graduation, and I sincerely hope that 
they will prove worthy successors to the long list of distin- 
guished scholars who have gone fqrth from the Old Mather 
School. 



62 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

The Chairman. — My first remembrance of a schoolmaster was 
the mention by my parents of their old schoolmaster, Mr. Vose, 
who taught on the upper road in Dorchester when they were chil- 
dren, and although Master Vose is no longer with us, we have one 
whose experience as an instructor of youth dates back to his time, 
and who was for many years a teacher in Old Dorchester, and after- 
wards in Roxbury and in Boston, and who has been for several 
years past a valued member of the Board of Supervisors of this 
city. Before the leorganization of the School Board (when their 
number was reduced from seventy -two to twenty-four members), 
the examination of teachers and pupils as to qualifications and pro- 
motions rested almost entirely with the individual members of the 
School Board ; but with the march of progress, with the annexa- 
tion of territory to the city of Boston, and with the increased 
needs of the schools, it was thought proper to employ a board of 
educational experts, and the Board of Supervisors was established, 
as a supplement to the legislative work of the School Board, of 
invaluable assistance to its members, and without whose advice 
the School Board would oftentimes be at a loss to pass upon 
educational questions coming before them, and I take pleasure in 
presenting as a representative of that board in charge of the Dor- 
chester schools, Mr. John Kneeland. 

ADDRESS OF MR. JOHN KNEELAND. 

In reaching back along the line of succession of masters of 
the Mather School, the Committee of Arrangements could 
get hold of no one who was before my time ; so I suppose 
they want me to be the connecting link between the past, 
that has been brought so vividly before us by the orator of 
the occasion, and the present. 

When I was given charge of the Mather School, in 18.52, I 
thought that I had been lifted up into Paradise. I thought 
then, as I think now, that there is hardly a more beautiful 
spot on the earth for a school than Meeting-house Hill. 

The present Mather building is but a few 3'^ears old. Its 
immediate predecessor, now used for primary classes, was 



ADDEESS OP MR. JOHN KNE ELAND. 63 

dedicated Sept, 4, 1856. The building in which I served 
preceded that. It was two-story, having one school-room, 
with an anteroom, on each floor. The lower room was oc- 
cupied by the Primary pupils, and the upper by the Gram- 
mar. There were three teachers in all and about one 
hundred and thirty pupils. Now there are in the Mather 
district nineteen teachers, and but few less than a thousand 
pupils. 

But it is not simply the teachers of the Mather School who 
are the successors of the Rev. Thomas Waterhouse ; all the 
other teachers of Dorchester are in the line of descent. 
Their schools are all branchings from the parent stem. So 
this occasion is theirs ; and it is only in a special sense that 
the master of the Mather School continues the royal line. It 
is, therefore, especially appropriate that all are brought to- 
gether on this occasion. 

I have always remembered with pleasure the admirable 
manner in which the schools of Dorchester were managed by 
the School Committee. The Board consisted of business 
men and scholarly men, and the work was divided among 
them according to their particular taste and ability. Nothing 
was neglected. The plan and methods of examination were 
excellent. One member examined all the schools in reading 
twice a year ; another member, in grammar ; another, in 
arithmetic, and so in other studies. I have not known, in my 
experience, schools more thoroughly examined. I cannot 
refrain from mentioning some of these men to whom Dor- 
chester owes so much, because of their advancement of its 
educational interests : Rev. Nathaniel Hall, for some years 
chairman of the Board ; Rev. Thomas B. Fox, and Rev. 
James H. Means, active members ; Increase S. Smith, former 
preceptor of Derby Academy, in Hingham ; Ebenezer Clapp, 
to whom much is due for those records that have been so 
freely quoted to-day; Dr. John P. Spooner, who for many 
years looked out for the material interests of the schools ; 



64 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

William D. Swan, for many years a noted Boston master, 
and very influential in town affairs. The mentioning of his 
name brings to mind a whole regiment of Swans ; for Dor- 
chester had several families of Swans, and every: family fur- 
nished able teachers. All were actively interested in the 
Dorchester schools. Though not on the School Committee,: 
Dr. Edward Jarvis and Samuel Downer, Jr., should not be 
forgotten. The former, at the request of Horace Mann, 
prepared an excellent work on physiology for common- 
school use, and was a sort of pioneer in hygienic study; the 
latter was always an earnest advocate in town-meetings f<)r 
liberal appropriations for school purposes. 

Allusion has been made to the pay of the early teachers. 
Not till 1711 did it reach forty pounds, — and then by the 
help of the Stoughton fund. Whether any master was able 
to become " passing rich on forty pounds a year," the record 
does not state. But I can testify that one master was able 
to keep poor, thirty-five years ago, on a hundred and forty 
pounds a year. Instead of the twenty pounds received by 
Rev. Thomas Waterhouse, the pay-roll of the teachers of 
Dorchester is now more than twenty thousand pounds a year., 

I want to say to my young friends that I began to teach 
in the Mather School on the 13th of July. How could that 
be, do you ask? We are now in June, and your vacation 
has already begun. Is it possible that a school was ever in 
session so late in «Tuly ? Yes ; and the school kept all through 
July and well into August, for the summer vacation then 
was the three weeks preceding the first Monday in Septem- 
ber. I am glad to show myself to the teachers as evidence 
that a man can live .on a vacation of only three weeks. But 
it had not been many years that the Dorchester schools 
had enjoyed so liberal a vacation as that. A member of the 
School Committee stated to me that when he was a boy he 
attended school on the lower road. The committee came in 
twice a year tp examine; the school. At the close of the ex- 



ADDRESS or MR. JOHN KNEELAND. 65 

amination, the chairman, Dr. Harris, would say, " Scholars, 
you have done well. The committee are pleased with your 
behavior and recitations, and, as a reward, will give you a 
holiday." That was the vacation of seventy-five years ago, 
and I have no doubt it was exceedingly enjoyed. 

The number of studies pursued in the schools has also 
been referred to. I want to show my young friends this 
text-book. It was used in a large town of this State — not 
Dorchester — just one hundred years ago. What would you 
say, if, instead of the long list of books you have worried 
through in school, you were obliged to hav^e only this one? It 
is a small book of about one hundred and sixty pages, called 
the " Youth's Instructor in the English Tongue." Spelling, 
reading, language, and arithmetic were all taught from this 
book. What a luxury it must have been to go to school ! 
No wonder vacations were of so little account. 

This is a great day for you, my young friends. You will 
remember with pride that you received here, under this canvas, 
your diplomas, on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the founding of the free schools of Dorche:«ter. Though you 
are graduates of so many different schools, you are the latest 
outcome of that free school that opened under the Rev. 
Thomas Waterhouse. You will value these badges you are 
wearing, and will preserve them with care. Who knows but 
some of you, your locks silvered by the touch of Time, will 
come up here fifty years hence to meet the graduating 
classes of that day, and join with them in celebrating the 
three hundredth anniversary. But whatever the length of 
your lives, and wherever spent, remember that as graduates 
of this year, as a conspicuous part of this celebration, it is 
especially incumbent upon you to show the great worth of 
this system of free schools, by your manifestation of faculty, 
appreciation of skill and learning, and interest in whatever 
makes for good; and, to sum up all, by your downright 
manliness and womanliness of character. 



66 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

The Chairman. — M}' first remembrance of a School Committee 
man was as a pupil in the Grammar School in South Boston, when 
one day the master of the school told the boys to close their books 
and listen to some remarks by a member of the School Board, and 
he introduced a gentleman who comes to us to-day from one of the 
great, busy, thriving cities of the "West, where he is now engaged 
in mercantile business. He was for many years a resident of your 
town, and for several years a member of the Boston School Board, 
where his reports and orders, culminating in a revision of the rules 
of the Board, stand as a monument to the zeal and eflSciency of his 
work. His I'eputation is national under the name of "Oliver 
Optic," and his reputation here is well-known as William T. 
Adams, 

Mr. Adams spoke briefly, congratulating the pupils on the day 
and their appearance, and expressing his pleasure in being present. 

The Chairbian. — It gives me pleasure to introduce to you Mr. 
George B. Hyde, who fifty-three years ago taught on this spot, and 
who since that time has been master of schools in Dorchester, 
Roxbury, and Boston, and for many years subsequent to his teach- 
ing has been a member of the Boston School Committee, and 
whom the city of Boston and the School Board have honored by 
placing in imperishable stone a monument which bears the name 
of the " Hyde School." 



ADDRESS OF MR. GEORGE B. HYDE. 

In March, 1836, fifty-three years ago, I was appointed 
master of the school on Meeting-house hill by the committee, 
tvs^o of whom were Rev. Dr. Harris and Rev. Dr. John Cod- 
man. The school-house was a one-story, one-room, brick 
building. The salary then paid the masters was $400, a 
year of forty-eight weeks, and I taught two evening schools 
a week without extra pay. Now the salary is $2,880 for 
about forty weeks, and the evening schools are kept by other 
masters at a separate charge. Then the parents were ex- 
pected to provide all books and other articles required by 



ADDRESS OF MR. CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN. 67 

the pupil; now all is supplied free if desired. Now the 
schools are greatly aided by laws compelling regular attend- 
ance, but in former times, and not beyond the memory of our 
older masters, the teacher depended on his ability to impress 
upon the pupil the advantages of the education which was 
then offered. I remained here but six months before findino: 
a more lucrative situation ; but while here I devoted my 
whole energy to my schwol. Had I not kept up my interest 
and acquaintance with the schools, it would be impossible 
for me to realize the changed condition of thinsfs. Yonder 
beautiful and commodious structure but gives expression to 
the wants, expectations, and opportunities of the time, and 
if these are met, our public schools will prove our safeguard 
and our g-reatest blessing. 



"O" 



The Chairman. — It gives me pleasure to introduce to you Mr. 
Charles Carleton Coffin, known throughout the country as the 
famous war correspondent and journalist, " Carleton." He is one 
who has ennobled the literature of his country by his patriotic and 
educational productions, who has always been intei-ested in the 
cause of education, and was for a number of years one of the most 
valued members of the Committee on Education of the Legisla- 
ture of the State. 

ADDRESS OF CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN. 

I doubt if the good people of Dorchester when they 
established a school upon this spot so long ago, who made it 
a school for rich and poor alike, had very much conception 
as to what a power it would be in the body politic in after 
years : — how this idea would grow, and broaden, and per- 
meate the community. The common school of New England 
has been a great educating, uplifting force, and as I look out 
over this audience — these faces so radiant and benign, illu- 
minated at this hour by the ceremonies of this occasion, by 
the thoughts that have been stirred within — one might 



68 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

almost say that the common school has brought forth on this 
western continent and in this free, intelligent community, 
the consummate flower of civilization. 

Never has there been a better illustration of the truth 
that knowledge is power than during the late war for the 
preservation of this government of the people. In the com- 
mon school the soldiers of the armies of the Union were 
educated. The Southern States had no such schools. No 
armies were ever marshalled surpassing or equaling in intelli- 
gence those that stood in solid ranks beneath the stars and 
stripes. Some one has said that their weapons were " think- 
ing bayonets." Certain it is that the soldiers on the march, 
by the bivouac fire, as in the whirlwind of battle, compre- 
hended quite as clearly as Cabinet ministers or Senators, the 
meaning of the gigantic struggle: — that it was brought 
about by the slave propaganda, and that the conflict must go 
on till that which caused it was swept from the Republic. 
In the common school they learned to think for themselves. 
No other institution of the land has had greater transforming 
power — for under it the boy born in foreign lands becomes, 
in thought and feeling, an American citizen. To him the 
stars and stripes becomes the brightest banner of all the 
ages. For it he is ready to lay down his life. 

It was at Cold Harbor, where the ground was strewn with 
Union dying and dead. Seven thousand cut down by the 
hot-blast blown from the Confederate trenches. Amono; 
the thousands was an officer w^hose birth was beyond the 
Atlantic, but who had in his boyhood become a citizen of 
the Republic. The dews of death were upon his brow. 
" Bring me the dear old flag, that I may behold it once 
more," he said, and grasped its crimson folds, pressed them 
to his lips in a long, afiectionate kiss, as if it were the fair 
cheek of wife, or maiden, or betrothed, laid the starry field 
of azure upon his breast and held it till the pulseless fingers 
loosened and his glazing eyes closed to earthly scenes. 



ADDRESS OF MR. RICHARD C. HUMPHREYS. 69 

So died Captain O'Neil, born beyond the sea, transformed 
by the power of the public school into a lofty citizenship, 
not of Massachusetts alone, but of the ofreat Republic. 

Such the transformino", energizing power of this beneficent 
institution, established by our fathers, whose act we com- 
memorate to-day. 

The Chairman. — The success of this occasion aud these exer- 
cises is due entirely to the Dorchester committee, the Ninth Divi- 
sion, as we call it, of the School Board. Dr. Liberty D. Packard, 
of that committee, has been prevented by illness and absence from 
taking any active part in the preparations, although he is with us 
to-day, and has by his counsel and advice assisted on the occasion. 
You will hear later in the day from your much-beloved and esteemed 
chairman, Mrs. Fifield, of that comraitteet You have already heard 
from Dr. Mowry, of that committee, in his elaborate, eloquent, and 
exhaustive historical address. You see about you, in the decora- 
tion and preparations for your comfort and convenience, the active 
work of Mr. Walsh, of that committee ; but for appropriate repre- 
sentation of everything connected with the occasion, there is one 
member of that committee who embodies in himself almost all the 
traditions and associations of the town of Dorchester, and all of 
whose ancestors, as far as I have been able to learn, came over on 
the " Mary and John." He has always been actively interested in 
Dorchester's welfare and her institutions ; in none more strongly 
than in matters of education, and particularly the development and 
education of youth ; he has devoted his entire time for the past 
several weeks to making tliis occasion a complete success, and I 
take great pleasure in presenting to you Mr. Richard C. Hum- 
phreys, of the Boston School Committee. 

ADDRESS OF MR. RICHARD C. HUMPHREYS. 

When I accepted the invitation to speak here to-day, I ex- 
pected to be able to present something that would be of real 
value, as well as add interest to this occasion, for I hoped to 
find a paper prepared by the late Deacon Ebenezer Clapp, 



70 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

the historian of Dorchester, of whom it would not be an ex- 
aggeration to say, he knew more of the history of this first 
free public school than any person now living. This paper 
was prepared for the dedication of the Mather School, but it 
was not delivered, and has been seen only by a few personal 
friends, but I have not been able to find it. I am, however, 
happy to stand here to-day, if for no other reason than to 
mention the name of Ebenezer Clapp in this presence. What 
an interest he would have taken in this celebiyition ! He was 
a real antiquarian, possessing the true spirit of the historian, 
with a pure love for ancient research, and with the good qual- 
ities of the Puritan without his proverbial harshness. I can 
see him now, his face lighting up as he argues with some 
sceptical interrogator who says, " Are you sure this was the 
first free public school in America?" 

" Sure, certainly I am, not only that it was the first free 
public school supported wholly by voluntary taxation of the 
people in this country, but in the whole world." 

Another name which all the old residents of Dorchester 
will recognize is that of William D. Swan. Born within a 
few feet of the spot where stood the first school-house, he 
spent most of his life on Meeting-house Hill. Thirty years 
ago he was one of the most prominent educators in this country, 
a noted author and publisher of school-books, a teacher in 
one of our Dorchester schools, afterwards a principal of one 
of the Boston schools, a brother of the present principal of the 
Winthrop, and of a former principal of the Phillips School. 

My friend. Dr. Benjamin Gushing, told me a few days ago 
a pleasant incident that occurred in Virginia during the late 
war. As he was on his way to the hospital he saw an aged 
colored man sitting by the side of the road, very intently 
reading, or looking at the pictures in a book. His curiosity 
was excited to know what kind of a book this nesTO was so 
nmch interested in, and he stepped up to him, and found to 
his astonishment it was "Swan's Primary School Reader." 



ADDRESS OF MR, RICHARD C. HUMPHREYS. 71 

We were glad to see on oar platform to-day a man to 
whom we are indebted for the conception of this celebration. 
I refer to Edward South worth, the principal of the Mather 
School, who, after a serious illness, was able to be with us for 
a short time. I know I express the feeling of his class, ye.s, 
of every member of his school, both teachers and scholars, 
of the School Committee, and his many friends here pres- 
ent, when I say we hope and trust he will soon regain his 
usual health and strength, and return in the fall to his post 
as ])rincipal of the Mather School. 

There is another name ihat should receive honorable men- 
tion here. I am surprised that it has not already been 
referred to ; a name that should be as familiar to every grad- 
uate of our Dorchester schools as those of their own house- 
hold. I refer to Chistopher Gibson, the man who, in 1680, 
gave to the town of Dorchester twenty-six acres of land for 
the benefit of her public schools. I am glad of an oppor- 
tunity to impress upon these graduates that they owe him a 
debt of gratitude and respect. Yes, we all, every person 
who ever attended a Dorchester school, should bear his name 
in mind with pleasant and thoughtful remembrance. Just 
think for a moment of the books of reference, the })hilosophi- 
cal instruments, the many little extras which the Dorchester 
schools have had from the income of the Gibson fund, which 
the other Boston schools have not had. And, perhaps, not 
the least of the pleasure some of you may have received from 
this man's kindness has been the base-ball ground in the 
Gibson field which you have used. 

In looking over a memorandum-book of my grandfather — 
who died in the year 1845, at the age of ninety -two, and 
whom I remember very well — I found the following: "1 
often went up. on to Meeting-house Hill to the big rock 
which stands a few rods north-west of the meeting-house, to 
see and to show others the ruins of the first school-house." 

And now let us contrast in our minds that first school-house, 



72 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

or, perhaps, the second, of which we have a better description, 
with the school-houses of to-day, and especially with the 
Boston English High and Latin School building. In 1694 
the toAvn of Dorchester contracted with eJohn Trescott (the 
record does not state how many bids were put in for this con- 
tract, but it does say that the contract was made with this 
man) to build a school-house, twenty feet long by nineteen 
feet wide, for the sum of $107.36. Just think for a moment ! 
A whole school-house complete for $107.36 — not much 
chance for a "job" there for the town officers. This was a 
low, one-story, pitched-roof, one-room building, not so large 
as one of our ordinary school-rooms. On three sides of the 
room a board was fastened for the boys to sit on, and in front 
of this a bench, and on the other side of the bench another 
raised board, so that the boys had to face each other while 
studying. (The record does not say the boys never whis- 
pered or poked each other under the bench.) The other end 
of the building was nearly all taken up in doorway, and fire- 
place so large that a ffve-foot log could easily be burned in it. 
I am glad that the contrast is so favorable to the schools 
of to-da3^ And all the city of Boston asks of you, my young- 
friends, is, that you appreciate and make a good use of the 
advantages which they so willingly give. 

At the close of Mr. HiirDphre3''s address the choir sang 
" America." 

The Chairman. — In the history of Boston and in the history of 
the advancement of women in higher education and the various 
spheres of usefulness which she now occupies, there is no one who 
takes a higher rank than one whom we have with us to-day, who 
has devoted her energies, her time, and experience in preparation 
for this event ; who has been for many 3'ears the I'epresentative of 
the old town of Dorcliester in the School Board of Boston, and 
who by her strength of character, amiabiUty of disposition, edu- 
cational attainments, and devotion to the interests of the young, 
has become endeared to the hearts of teachers, parents, and pupils. 



ADDRESS OF MRS. EMILY A. FIFIELD. 73 

and has won the admiration and respect of all her associates on 
the School Committee. She needs no introduction to a Dorchester 
audience, but I have taken the liberty of introducing her so that I 
might express the sentiments of my associates on the School Com- 
mittee, and the appreciation of her great worth to us as an associ- 
ate member. I take pleasure in presenting Mrs. Emil}' A. Fifield, 
chairman of the Dorchester Division Commitee. 



ADDRESS OF MRS. EMILY A. FIFIELD. 

The pleasure with which we celebrate this anniversary is 
mingled with a good deal of pride. That the work under- 
taken by those wise and far-seeing men, who believed in the 
value of learning and the diffusion of knowledge, has con- 
tinued without interruption and without stint for two hundred 
and fifty years, is cause for satisfaction and giatitude. 

That our public school system is as vital to our country as 
life itself is evident. It is, therefore, svith varied emotions 
that we present to you the graduating pupils of Dorchester as 
evidence of the mighty proportions to which the first small 
undertaking has grown. 

To the graduates. — To make every school-boy and every 
school-girl a true American citizen is the high purpose of our 
schools, and what greater inspiration could you have than 
the history to which you have listened to-day ? If you have 
not before realized the full meaning of those banners under 
which you stand, the names of Tileston and Stoughton, of 
Gibson and Minot, of Harris and Pierce, of Everett and 
Mather, must surely hereafter be incentives to the highest 
aims and aspirations. 

As Boston, with great generosity, continues the work begun 
here so long ago, and gives you advantages unequalled by 
any other country in the world, it is for you, by public use- 
fulness and personal character, to sustain the principles of free 
thought and free education that are commemorated to-day, 



74 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

and to be sure that no act of yours shall sully the brilliant 
record of the past. 

You have finished the Grammar School course with credit. 
By diligence and faithfulness you have earned the approbation 
of your teachers and the congratulations of this vast as- 
semblage of admiring parents and friends, and it is vrith great 
pleasure that the School Committee present to you these tes- 
timonials of Boston's love and pride, wishing you all success 
and prosperity, and feeling sure that you will care for the 
schools as they have been guarded for you. 

At the close of Mi's. Fifield's address, diplomas of graduation 
were presented to the graduates by Mrs. Flfield. The graduates 
of the Dorchester High School received their diplomas from the 
hands both of the chairman, he being a member of the High 
Scliool Committee, and of Mrs. Fifleld, chairman of the Division 
Committee. 

GRADUATES OF THE DORCHESTER SCHOOLS, 1889. 
Dorchester High School. Elbridge Smith, Master. 

Edith r. Abbott, Gertrude J. Chase, Susan J. Clark, Jane T. Cook, 
Mercy A. Y. Crosman, Mary M. Dacey, Josephine F. Farrell, Janet B. 
Halliday, Hannah L. Johnson, Emma E. Mitchell, Louise Robinson, 
Mary Sanford, Etta A. Sheehan, Carrie C. Stecker, Mary Stock, Maud 
A. Tice, John J. Cunningham, Frank E. Greenwood, Frederick R. 
Jenkins, Walter P. Jones, Charles F. Phipps, Charles O. Richardson, 
Frank R. Sewall, Ralph H. Smith, Loring W. Stone, John E. Walsh. 

Dorchester-Everett School. Henry B. Miner, Master. 

Mary E. Breen, Hattie Browne, Helen C. Divver, Lucy A. Gould, 
Mary E. Ham, Mary E; Hehir, Ida I. Irwin, H. Amy Jaynes, Alice M. 
Kelley, Mary J. Merritt, Sarah F. Miles, Elizabeth B. Mohan, Florence 

E. Murphy, Mary Nolan, Mary F. O'Doherty, Mary R. Pearson, Annie 
R. Pope, Mabel F. Robinson, Grace Wilson, Ada M. Worthington, 
Randolph Bainbridge, Frederick E. Cleaves, Stanley H. CoflS.n, William 

F. Daniels, Alfred F. Hall, George W. Ham, George W. Hill, Ridge- 
way Holbrook, George F. Holden, Clarence B. Humphreys, Walter 



GRADUATES OF DORCHESTER SCHOOLS, 1889. 75 

Humphreys, John T. Igo, M. Leon Ingalls, Fred H. Mann, Elisha H. 
Moseley, Fred V. Murtfeldt, Joseph F. O'Doherty, George M. Paul, 
J. Waldo Pond, Otis U. Smith, Louis J. B. Soyard, William H. Spooner, 
C. Otis Vegelahn, John Walsh, Frederick F. Young. 

Gibson School. William E. Endicott, Master. 

Julia E. Bornstein, Charlotte E. Chittenden, Mary L. Connellj^ Kate 
F. Cushing, Eva C. Fairbrother, Annie E. Gleason, Fannie D. Halpin, 
Emma F. Hannon, May M. Henderson, Alice E. Kelly, Mabel E. Mor- 
gan, Nelly A. Mullen, Lida A. Ourish, Emma L. Ruby, Blanche 
E. Smith, Alice M. Talbot, Emma A. Vantassel, Elizabeth F. Tobin, 
Sarah L. Vose, Edith W. Whitcomb, Florence R. Williams, John J. 
Blue, John H. Burroughs, Albert Percy Chittenden, Roger C. Chit- 
tenden, Roswell F. Forbush, George F. Haskell, Thomas F. Renney, 
Martin F. McAndrews, Lewis H. Madore, Lawrence F. Richmond, 
Fred R. Robinson, Franklin I. Smith. 

Harris School. N. Eosea Whittemore, Master. 

Mary F. Allen, Ida D. Berry, Aimee L. Cromack, Stella M. Far- 
rington, Sadie S. Hosmer, Blanche E. Lefavour, Elizabeth R. Oates, 
Josephine P. Peabody, Cora A. Polk, Hortense V. de Saptes, Katie M. 
Whelton, Owen B. Aldrich, Timothy F. Bradley, Joseph B. Carven, 
Henry T. Curtis, George S. Foster, Webster S. Knight, William J. 
Lynch, Peter F. Martin, Jerry A. McCarthy, John F. McCarthy, James 
J. McMorrow, Charles W. Thurston, Saflford J. Washbmni, Charles H. 
White, Edward R. Winchester, Josej)h H. Young. 

Mather School. Edward Southworih, Master. 

Katherine C. Berigan, Gertrude C. Buck, Catherine E. Donlan, Emma 
W. Elms, Gertrude M. Flanigan, Margaret E. Hennessey, Barbara R. 
Kelley, Mary F. G. MacDonough, Sarah C. Nickels, Ellen V. O'Connell, 
Annie L. Reddington, Charlotte G. Sewall, Edith M.Tarbell, H. Erminie 
Wasserboehr, Alice M. Whalen, William H. Boardman, Martin J. 
Bourke, Edwin A. Brainerd, John D. Brick, George J. Donohoe, 
George H. Glavey, Henry G. Grush, Uriah R. Harding, Jr., Charles S. 
McEvilla, John E. Mulroy, John L. Murphy, Joseph F. Murray, John 
A. Nelson, Joseph P. O'Connell, Maynard A. Parker, Jr., Richard H. 
Perry, Herbert F. Reinhard, N. Winthrop Robinson, Robert H. Storer. 

Minot School. Joseph T. Ward, Jr., Master. 

Bessie A. Adair, Evvie F. Dalby, Mary J. Dolan, Mary C. Dorcey, 
Catherine H. Hudson, Mabel D. Kendrick, Anna T. McCloskey, Mary 



76 DORCHESTER CELEBRATION. 

E. Minton, Mary O'Brien, Margaret E. Roche, Margaret F. Ronan, 
Helen W. Safford, Bertha C. Smith, Lydia B. Souther, Mary E. Sulli- 
van, Frederic H. Adams, John J. Crowne, Isaac Dennison, Herbert E. 
Ellis, Herbert S. Hayden, Jonathan B. Hayward, Henry A. Hoyt, Wal- 
ter H. Hoyt, Reuben M. Hyde, Harry G. Jarvis, Frederick I. Mullare, 
James Murray, Arthur L. Oakman, James Sullivan, Harry W. Tileston. 

Pierce School. Horace W. Warren, Principal. 

Bertha M. Ayer, Elizabeth Brine, Ella F. Frost, Mabel A. Haines, 
Emily A. Harry, Cora B. Lee, Maude S. Long, Mary L. McEnany, 
Katharine Merrick, Alice S. Raymond, C. Bessie Stowe, William Batch- 
elor, William H. Boyd, William A. Dahl, Thomas E. Eaton, James A. 
Keheo, George H. McCarthy, William J. Mooney, George S. Murray, 
William O'Brien, Carl E. Paige, Albert S. Pastene, Dennis J. Sullivan, 
Edward Thompson, Frank R. Tolman, William A. Whitehouse. 

Stoughton School. Edward M. Lancaster, Master. 

Annie M. Bragdon, Mary A. Barrett, Harriet M. Barnes, Elizabeth 
B. Clark, Nora Desmond, Catherine Dwyer, Louise C. Gigger, Char- 
lotte M. Hall, Allie L. Hurd, Olive K. Karcher, Alice F. Mahoney, 
Catherine E. McGovern, Emma L. Merrill, Susan E. Robinson, Helena 
A. Savage, Annie L. D. Swan, Francis A. Woodworth, L. Mae Wells, 
Lora E. Willis, George H. Bragdon, John J. Dowling, Frederic A. Gas- 
kins, Albert E. Gigger, Winthroj) A. Hallett, Frank A. Hamilton, John 
R. Hiorns, Arthur H. Holway, John P. J. Kidney, Joseph M. Mahoney, 
Arthur T. Robinson, Charles M. Swan, Judson M. Scott. 

Tileston School. Hiram M. Oeorge, Principal. 

Mary E. Chamberlain, Agnes Fottler, Eva A. Page, Edith B. 
Starratt, Fred N. Cook, Henry F. Hersey, William H. Parker, Charles 
S. Shugg. 

At the close of the presentation of diplomas a benediction was 
pronounced by Rev. Christopher R. Eliot,, pastor of the First 
Church of Dorchester, located on Meeting-house Hill. 

After tiie exercises in the tent an individual prize-drill took 
place on the Common, to which tlie large audience repaired. There 
was an excellent exhibition of the manual of arms, and a sharp 
competition between the individual soldiers of the Dorchester High 
School Company. 



CONCLUSION. 77 

The judges of the competitive drill were Lieut. Smith, of Bat- 
tery A, M.V.M., Capt. A. H. Graves, of E. B. H. S., and Capt. 
Irvin M. Conness, of B.L.S. 

The prizes were awarded as follows : First prize, a gold medal, 
Sergt. Ralph H. Smith ; second prize, a gold medal. Corporal 
F. M. Weymouth; third prize, a silver medal, Private E. H. 
Breckenridge. The prizes were presented to the winners by Lieu- 
tenant Smith, who complimented the young soldiers on their thor- 
oughness of drill. 

Thus ended one of the most interesting and instructive occa- 
sions in the history of Dorchester. 



